Takahiko Iimura
Experiments in New York
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Add rightsFormat DVD Interzone
Original format 16mm
Year 1967-1984
Language(s) Japanese
Artist(s) Takahiko Iimura
Running time 29 min
Films
NEW YORK SCENES (1967) 10'
NEW YORK HOT SPRINGS (1984) 11'
TALKING IN NEW YORK (1981) 8'
Description
The first film, New York Scenes (1967), consists of sketches of certain scenes and portraits of the filmmaker's friends as well as other people. It is divided into five "chapters," one of which features the famous filmmaker Jack Smith with his film Flaming Creatures. The film presents one scene per chapter, respectively titled: Linda with a Lens, Jack Smith with his film "Flaming Creatures", Fire Hydrants on Broadway, Akiko on the Roof, and A Hippy in the Central Park.
The second film, New York Hot Springs (1984), was made from steam escaping from manhole covers, a typical scene on New York streets in winter, which reminded the filmmaker of Japanese hot springs in volcanic mountains. Composed of shots showing different steam at ten locations in the city, the film is edited sequentially, each shot lasting five seconds, and the cycle is repeated ten times. It is a form of structural film, one might say. Since the shape of the steam changes at every moment, one always observes a new image, even in the same location.
The third film, Talking in New York (1981), is a first-person cinema where Iimura is both the cameraman and the actor. Behaving as a perfect stranger in the city, unable to speak or understand its language, he walks with his camera in iconic locations like Times Square or the top of the Empire State Building, listening only to his own voice uttering the words: "I hear myself at the very moment I speak," in two languages, Japanese and English. These words are a quote from French philosopher Jacques Derrida, who calls them "the phenomenological essence."