The First Love
Mari Terashima’s Hatsukoi was made in 1989 while she was studying under Japanese experimental filmmaking giant Toshio Matsumoto at the Kyoto University of Art & Design. The haunting film, made without any dialogue, is full of gothic symbol- ism: candles, tarot cards, thorny red roses and white birds shot in close-up. The faint outline of a narrative follows four characters: a pure young girl in a red dress; the older, mustachioed gentleman in a wheelchair with whom she lives; a boy in a sailor outfit who gazes towards the girl with loving eyes; and an old woman who spreads tarot cards.
Correspondence translation by Kei Masuda
Un rêve plus long que la nuit
Un rêve plus long que la nuit (A Dream Longer Than the Night) is French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s fairytale trip through the female erotic psyche. Most known for her brightly-coloured monumental sculptures and her series of Tirs assemblage paintings—in which she would shoot at the artwork with a gun—Saint Phalle was also an accomplished filmmaker. Her two feature films form a curious diptych externalising hidden and complex impulses of female sexuality. She upheld her convictions by not only writing and directing, but importantly also playing in front of the camera as well.