Jerzy Skolimowski, photo: Rafal Siderski / Dziennnik / Forum
Skolimowski has selected films to be screened at Warsaw’s Kino Kultura, and through the review, from the 16th until the 20th of June, a special exhibit is hosted by Skwer gallery just across from Kultura. The presentation, entitled Ślady Tokio / Traces of Tokyo, is a rare occasion to view the artist's huge canvases, inspired by his stays in Japan.
PAP: You have been to Japan six times. Is this review a direct effect of these visits?
Jerzy Skolimowski: What’s interesting is that it has turned out that the Japanese industry is the best market for my films. Films I directed really appealed to the taste of Japanese audiences. I will underscore that all of the movies I made to date have been distributed there. Thanks to this fact, I have gathered a lot of contacts and built numerous friendships. It was also possible to organise a review of Polish cinema in Tokyo [2012]. In exchange and in gratitude for that Tokyo event, we decided organise a review of Japanese films in Warsaw.
There are nine productions on the programme.
A few of them are classics, very known films: Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa from 1961, The Woman in the Dunes by Hiroshi Teshigahara from 1964, and Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story from 1953. I will draw your attention to the fact that all these three titles are shortlisted among the best films in the history of cinema. Kino Kultura will also screen contemporary films. We will begin on Sunday at 4 pm with a showing of Pacchigi! We Shall Overcome Someday from 2004. It was directed by Kazuyuki Izutsu.
The admission to this screening is free, and it will be followed by a meeting with the director. Pacchigi! We Shall Overcome Someday is a very dramatic and yet a very funny and romantic story, about the love of a Korean woman living in Kyoto and a Japanese man, cast in the tumultous period of changes that were taking place in Japan in the 1960s. I am convinced that after seeing this film, the audience will also want to watch more titles of the review. I strongly recommend it. Entrance to other screenings will be cost 5 złoty [about 1.2 euro].
So, what else will we be able to see?
Norwegian Wood, a film made in 2010, which is an adaptation of the best-selling novel from Murakami. Also a 1983 film directed by Nagisa Oshima, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, with David Bowie cast as the main protagonist. The action of this film is set in 1942 in a POW camp of the Japanese army. Kino Kultura will also host screenings of Death Note from 2006, directed by Shusuke Kaneko, as well as the 2013 shocking documentary picture directed by Kaoru Ikeya, entitled The Roots. It’s a film about an old man, who has lost his home due to the 2011 earthquake. We will also be showing an animated film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, directed by Mamoru Hosoda in 2006.
The screenings are accompanied by an exhibition of your painting, entitled The Traces of Tokyo. How many works will we see? In the invitation to the event we were reminded that "Jerzy Skolimowskie takes interest not only in Japanese cinematography but also other aspects of the country’s culture, such as calligraphy."
I am showing more than a dozen works at the exhibition. They are inspired by my visits to Japan, mostly my first visit, in fact, which took place in 1998. I was living in California at the time, and because of a big time difference, I couldn’t sleep.
Because of that, at night I would wander the streets of Tokyo. At night they look completely different than during the day. Incredible Japanese signs gain their voice at this time. There are no crowds in the streets, no traffic jams. The streets are empty. And at the same time, they are filled with various advertisements, names of shops, which draw our attention - the power of these signs turned out to be strong, to have such an impact on me, that immediately after my return to California I started to work on huge canvases, inspired by Japanese calligraphy.
They are very large pieces, some are nearly three by five meters. So it is very seldom that they manage to get shown publicly. But we were lucky to find a gallery across the street from Kultura. It’s Galeria Skwer on Krakowskie Przedmieście. There is a large space there. The exhibition is open for viewers at the gallery from the 16th until the 30th of June.
What fascinates you in Japan?
Otherness. And mystery. It’s a culture of signs and symbols. In Poland, the writer Haruki Murakami has become greatly popular. His work is a classic exemple of Japanese culture. He talks about something is a seemigly complicated and mysterious way, and yet, in the end the message is very clear.
When it comes to Japanese films - what we are doing in Europe nowadays, and what is being done in Hollywood, is very different from these films. It’s one of the reasons why Japanese cinema is so interesting.
And how is your work received in that part of the world?
Japan is the only country where I have so-called fan clubs, circles of those who love my films. A comic book was even released, of which I am the main protagonist. As I said before, all of my movies were screened in Japan. Essential Killing was hugely popular there. Perhaps it’s also due to the fact of Vincent Gallo’s popularity there.
But everything began with Start, a film made many years ago, in 1967. In Japan it was shown in 1998, when I first visited the country. Its popularity triggered more screenings of my films.
Interview conducted by Joanna Poros (PAP)
Translated by Paulina Schlosser, source PAP, 14.06.2013