The woman in the dunes

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Movie
German title The woman in the dunes
Original title Suna no onna
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1964
length 123/147 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Hiroshi Teshigahara
script Kobo Abe
production Kiichi Ichikawa ,
Tadashi Ōno
music Tōru Takemitsu
camera Hiroshi Segawa
cut Fusako Shuzui
occupation

The Woman in the Dunes ( Japanese 砂 の 女 , suna no onna ) is a Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara from 1964. The screenplay was written by Kōbō Abe , based on his novel of the same name from 1962, and played the leading roles by Eiji and Okada Kyōko Kishida .

action

The entomologist Niki Junpei goes in search of rare insects in a lonely coastal area. When he is looking for accommodation for the night because he missed the last bus back to town, some villagers take him to the house of a young widow who lives alone, which is in a depression below a cliff and can only be reached via a rope ladder can. The woman entertains him and, while he goes to bed, begins to clear the sand that has penetrated through every crack. The next morning he discovered that the house was surrounded not only by the cliff, but also by insurmountable shifting dunes. The villagers have meanwhile pulled up the ladder, which means that he can no longer leave the property. He learns from the woman that he is being held in support of her, as she cannot fight the constantly advancing dunes on her own, which also threaten the village. Outraged, he makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape, ties up the woman and refuses to cooperate, but has to accept that they are dependent on the water supply from the villagers. Resigned, he finally takes up the fight against the sand.

He and the woman with very different views on life get closer and begin an affair that is clouded over and over again by the man's longing for freedom. One day, however, he discovers that water collects in the ground between the dunes, which can then be extracted. He begins to investigate the phenomenon. The woman becomes pregnant and becomes ill. The man brings help and the woman is taken away by the villagers. When this finally gives him the opportunity to escape, he realizes that his old life has nothing to offer him and he voluntarily stays behind in the house in the dunes.

criticism

“Existentialist metaphor full of visually powerful symbolisms, which reflects the disorientation of Japanese society after the lost war, the abdication of the Tenno and in the face of a changing world economy. A milestone in Japanese cinema. "

- Lexicon of international film

“A symbolic Japanese film about the position of man in the world, which leaves the viewer open to many interpretations. For people who also think something in the cinema, very stimulating. "

- Protestant film observer (review No. 232/1966)

Awards

The woman in the dunes received the special jury award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964 . At the Academy Awards in 1965 (official counting 1964), the film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film , but Vittorio De Sicas had to admit defeat yesterday, today and tomorrow . A year later, Teshigahara received a nomination for Best Director for The Woman in the Dunes .

In Japan, both Teshigahara and the composer Toru Takemitsu received awards at the Mainichi Film Festival, as well as the artistic direction and the film. There were also two Kinema Junpo Awards for Best Film and Best Director as well as two Blue Ribbon Awards in the same categories.

Trivia

  • Although there is a shorter theatrical version of Die Frau in den Dünen (123 minutes), only the Director's Cut with a running time of 147 minutes is available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc .
  • The film was initially released in Germany from the age of 18, for DVD evaluation it was downgraded to 16 by the FSK .
  • The Soviet director Andrei Arsenjewitsch Tarkowski counted The Woman in the Dunes among his favorite films.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The woman in the dunes. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 6, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ The woman in the dunes on filmdienst.de, accessed on August 25, 2019
  3. ↑ Andrei Tarkovsky's 10 Favorite Films on thefilmstage.com, accessed August 25, 2019