Mix of theatre, dance and film about a Japanese dancer who lives in the French countryside in a commune with two women. When his daughter and wife arrive from Tokyo to spend the summer there, something strange seems to happen.
The Japanese dancer Kamimura has lived for years with two women in the south of Normandy. Early in the summer, during a dance festival, his wife Akiko and his young daughter Mayu arrive from Tokyo. Yozuku, one of the other women, leaves for New York. Kamimura spends the summer with his family, and as autumn approaches and Yozuku returns, mother and daughter prepare to return to Japan.
The women get along without any trouble. Only it's strange that the daughter Mayu can be heard all the time, but never appears on screen. And does it just seem so, or is Akiko’s behaviour sometimes very inappropriate? In a mix of dance, theatre and film, director Iwana, who himself also lives in Normandy, creates a fairytale life in a commune where everything works out the way the protagonists would like to see it. Or is there something else going on? The film's website warns about ‘5 minutes of “pornographic" material'.
PROGRAMMER NOTES
The summer family from the title of the film is a family of artists. Artistic friends as family of the maker Masaki Iwana. In the summer, in France, where the dancer, film maker and artist has lived for many years, there are many arts festivals. This attracts dancers and musicians from far away. Even from Japan. Apparently Masaki is a hospitable man, because in the summer , a motley collection of people come and go from his house and studio at La maison du Butoh Blanc. This can be seen and felt in this film. There is a lot of spontaneous and playful improvisation. Lots of people act in a crazy manner when photographed and filmed and this also applies to artists, even though they occasionally act even more crazily or in a more talented way.
Outside the film, even more can be seen of this. Anybody who looks for Maski Iwana or p La Maison Butoh Blanc on YouTube, can find quite a lot of this midsummer madness. I found a very nice small film among them. It's filmed by Masaki himself. You see a half naked man (his genitals clearly bare, lying back in the water. He looks as if he's dead or nearly dead. He has a flower in his stiff hand. The water makes him move gently. It's obvious that a corpse in water can dance in the opinion of Masaki. The dancer is Adrian Shephard and the film is called: The Tide in Malta. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdapwzQa8AY
GjZ