Film Noe

Gaspar Noé

Since the release of his breakout film Irréversible in 2002, Gaspar Noé (b. 1963) has been labeled the principal provocateur of twenty-first-century French cinema. While many of the filmmaker’s complex and daring works have been reduced by his critics to their (innumerable) depictions of hallucinogens, violence, and unsimulated sexual intercourse—the latter rendered into vertiginous 3D with his film Love—other viewers have remained in steady awe of Noé’s dizzying camerawork, immersive visuality, and expressive editing. Noé’s cinema greets the short attention spans of digital life with works of extremities and endurance for performers and spectators alike. This first-of-its-kind collection of interviews documents Noé’s engagement with the feverish reception of his work and received ideas about his life and politics. Collecting conversations with critics, scholars, and artists, including fellow directors Matthew Barney, Abel Ferrara, and Harmony Korine, Noé speaks about his process as a writer, director, cinematographer, and editor. Also examined are his engagement with developing film technology and his fascination and indebtedness to past filmmakers such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean Eustache, Stanley Kubrick, and Sam Peckinpah. Noé discusses life in Buenos Aires and emigrating to France, his use of irony and melodrama, and his interest in documentary practices. Throughout, Noé explores his continuing examination of faith and secularism, body and mind, and the politics of spectatorship. Editor Geoffrey Lokke’s introduction provides a close reading of Noé in conversation, assessing what has changed over the years in terms of the filmmaker’s aesthetics and presentation of self, as well as what Noé is reticent to articulate about his life and art.

Catalog of audiovisual productions

Ishiro Honda

“An appreciation of Japanese fantasy-film history through the eyes of a filmmaker whose name is obscure but populism remains influential.” —Chicago Tribune Ishiro Honda, arguably the most internationally successful Japanese director of his generation, made an unmatched succession of science fiction films that were commercial hits worldwide. From the atomic allegory of Godzilla and the beguiling charms of Mothra to the tragic mystery of Matango and the disaster and spectacle of Rodan, The Mysterians, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Honda’s films reflected postwar Japan’s anxieties and incorporated fantastical special effects, a formula that created an enduring pop culture phenomenon. Now, in the first full account of this overlooked director’s life and career, Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski shed new light on Honda’s work and the experiences that shaped it—including his days as a reluctant Japanese soldier, witnessing the aftermath of Hiroshima, and his lifelong friendship with Akira Kurosawa. The book features close analysis of Honda’s films (including, for the first time, his rarely seen dramas, comedies, and war films) and draws on previously untapped documents and interviews to explore how creative, economic, and industrial factors impacted his career. Fans of Godzilla and tokusatsu (special effects) film, and of Japanese film in general, will welcome this in-depth study of a highly influential director who occupies a uniquely important position in science fiction and fantasy cinema, as well as world cinema. “Provides the reader with a lasting sense of the man—his temperament, values, philosophies, dreams, and disappointments?behind some of cinema’s most beloved characters.” —Film Comment