A sense of loss and the fear of death are recurring themes in the movies by Japanese director Naomi Kawase, whose earliest works were hand-held camera shots of the woman who raised her. The lens would blur then focus on everyday objects — a view from a…
A sense of loss and the fear of death are recurring themes in the movies by Japanese director Naomi Kawase, whose earliest works were hand-held camera shots of the woman who raised her.
The lens would blur then focus on everyday objects — a view from a small window, water dropping from a faucet, a close-up of the woman’s wrinkled face, peas picked from a backyard garden.
Or, the camera would look up, into the sky, allowing the screen to flicker in a dance of overexposed light.
The choices speak of a determination to reach for eternity, love and hope from a young filmmaker, who grew up not knowing a mother or a father, but knew the woman so dear to her would have to die soon.
Twenty-five years later, the Japanese director is still fascinated by how film can bring together the past and the future, capturing moments that would otherwise be gone forever.
Her « Mourning Forest, » a 2007 Cannes Grand Prix winner, focuses on an unlikely spiritual bond that arises between an old man, who is obsessed with his dead wife, and his young female caretaker, whose child has died, as they get lost in a forest.
« I have gained a lot of knowledge through experience. But to start thinking you are right is dangerous for a creator. You must constantly create anew. You must always be hungry, » Kawase told The Associated Press backstage of a Tokyo theater, where she is directing a multicultural cast in Puccini’s « Tosca, » her first hand at opera.
« You must always be able to catch what is being born that might be even more fantastic than what you have.
