Hamaguchi Ryūsuke: insights on and from the Japanese auteur
Plus: Mica Levi on their innovative score for The Zone of Interest – Víctor Erice interviewed about his masterful return to feature filmmaking, Close Your Eyes – a festival report from a politically charged Berlinale – remembering David Bordwell, a tireless champion of film art – and Richard Lester interviewed in 1973
“The emotions in Hamaguchi Ryūsuke’s films catch you unawares. They build slowly. As seemingly ordinary interactions – gatherings of family and friends, chats with work colleagues, attendance at the theatre or public meetings – placidly proceed, we may not even be entirely aware of the subterranean movement and evolution of these feelings. When you do find yourself shedding a tear or trembling with dread before one of his movies, it is rarely tied directly to a moment of drama or catharsis, such as a confrontation or a confession. Rather, it would seem that a crack has opened up at some almost indiscernible point of the film’s unfolding, and eventually – when you least expect it – the emotion wells up through it.”
— Adrian Martin on Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, for this issue’s cover feature
