188 - Jellyfish Eyes, 2015, Japan. Dir. Takashi Murakami.

Friday, July 7, 2017

188 - Jellyfish Eyes, 2015, Japan.  Dir. Takashi Murakami.

How many professional artists do you know that have made movies?


Julian Schnabel may be the most successful.

After training at the University of Houston and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Schnabel began showing in galleries in the late 1970s.  His breakthrough came at a famous exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1981.  He is known for large paintings and paintings on ceramic plates.

His films include Basquiat (1996), Before Night Falls (2000), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), and Miral (2010).  He also filmed Lou Reed in a five-day concert of his album Berlin (2007).

His film work is special.

He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Directing for The Diving Bell, and that film received four total Oscar nominations.

His film Before Night Falls put Javier Bardem on the map, earning him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.


Andy Warhol may be the most famous.

The man who coined the phrase "fifteen minutes of fame" enjoyed more minutes than that through his pop art, including famous works from Campbell's Soup cans to colored portraits of Mariliyn Monroe.

As a filmmaker, he made many experimental films, working together with his "Superstars" from his "Factory."  Some of the films are shot in real time and last for many hours.  Others are campy stories that might feature classic monster characters or sexuality.

Warhol worked with filmmaker Paul Morrissey, who signed The Velvet Underground (not to be confused with Morrissey (Steven Patrick Morrissey), the lead singer of The Smiths).  Lou Reed was the lead singer of The Velvet Underground, connecting back to Julian Schnabel, whom we just said filmed Reed's live concert of Berlin.

Many of Warhol's paintings are kept at the Whitney Museum, another connection to Schnabel.


Salvador Dali may be the most infamous.

He co-wrote with Luis Bunuel the shocking 1929 short film Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog), containing the shot of a razor blade slicing an animal's eyeball, as well as Bunuel's first feature, the surrealist l'Age d'Or (The Golden Age) (1930).

He also designed dream sequences for Archie Mayo's 1942 film Moontide, starring Jean Gabin--in his bid for Hollywood--and Ida Lupino, and Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 film Spellbound, starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck.

In 1975 he directed a documentary about the Surrealist movement, Impressions de la haute Mongolie.


Did you know that Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), was the visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood, now married to Aaron Johnson?  She also directed music videos for R.E.M., Elton John, and The Pet Shop Boys, as well as her debut feature Nowhere Boy (2009).


Did you know that Steve McQueen, the director of Hunger (2008), Shame (2011), and 12 Years a Slave (2013), also began as a visual artist?  In 1999 he won the Turner Prize, named for English painter J. M. W. Turner, for his video on Buster Keaton.


And our third film, Beauty and the Beast (1946), was made by the painter and poet, sculptor and playwright, Jean Cocteau.


So who is Takashi Murakami?

He is an artist.  He trained in Nihonga, traditional Japanese painting, and received his PhD.  He has worked in a wide variety of mediums and styles.  He has written several books on art.  And he has won many awards.

And in 2013 he released his first feature film as a director, Jellyfish Eyes.

Jellyfish Eyes is a family film, in which a boy and his mother move to a new town.  He is grieving over the loss of his father, but upon unpacking, discovers a magical animated creature who becomes his friend.

When he goes to school, he discovers that all of the other kids have their own animated creatures, which they control with their devices.  He is able to speak to his.

At recess the children engage in massive battles between the creatures.

He makes friends with a girl named Saki.  Together they will go on an adventure in which they must battle dark forces at work, and their creatures will help them.

The critics so far do not like this film.

Criterion finds value in what Murakami is doing and where they believe his potential may take him.

My children love it.