Exotica: Japan

Silent Film in Concert

Kenji Mizoguchi (1888-1956) had already produced almost sixty films when he shot The Water Magician, an adaptation of a novel by Kyoka Izumi. This film reveals the producer's taste for passionate dramas, the moral conflicts at the heart of Japanese society that he analyzed incessantly.

Program

The Water Magician (Taki no Shiraito)

Shiraito, young artist of an itinerant spectacle, is in love with Kinya, law student, for whom she decided to sacrifice herself by putting some money aside to help him to end her studies. One day she discovers that her boss stole him his savings and, discouraged, kills him...

This film, restaured by the library of Tokyo, is one of the very rare complete films of the silent period of Mizoguchi to have reached us. In this project with electronics, the composer Misato Mochizuki (born in Tokyo in 1969), mixes the western and Japanese instrumentarium.

World Premiere

Japon, 1933, black and white, 101 min

• Kenji Mizoguchi Director. Film restored by the National Film Center of Tokyo
• Misato Mochizuki Musical creation for six instruments and electronics. Commissioned by the Musée du Louvre

Distribution

Computer Music Production by Misato Mochizuki and Christophe Mazzella, with the support of IRCAM | Ensemble Contrechamps |  Directed by Jurjen Hempel | HaeSung Choe, violin | Anne Bassand, harp | Makiko Goto, Koto | Harrie Starreveld, Shakuhachi | Hideaki Tsuji, Shamisen | François Volpé, percussions

An IRCAM-Centre Pompidou, Musée du Louvre and Contrechamps coproduction. With the support of Sacem. In collaboration with the National Film Center of Tokyo.

Photo: The Water Magician - © National Film Center, Tokyo