[Mini Theater Revisited] No. 5 New Wave from Roppongi...Part 2 Cine Vivant Roppongi Part 2

Cine Vivant Roppongi is truly one of the "legendary mini theaters". It opened in 1983 and closed in 1999, so it has only been in existence for 16 years, but those who have ever set foot in this theater will still remember its unique atmosphere.

It had a strong presence, including the uniqueness of the WAVE culture building that housed the theater.

In the first part, I looked back at WAVE's situation at the time, but in the second part, I would like to introduce the remarks of Seiichi Tsukada, the former manager of Cine Vivant. I met him again in the summer of 2012. At the time, he was working in the music industry, but when I contacted him for the first time in a while, he kindly agreed to an interview.

Although some time has passed since our interview, on that day I saw him looking back on those days with sparkling eyes, and I was once again reminded of the significance of that theater's existence.

One film that he has a particular fondness for is the Spanish film " The Whisper of the Bees ." It is one of the popular works produced by this theater, and he also talked about the reaction it had at the time.

*The following articles were serialized on the website operated by Geijutsu Shimbun between 2013 and 2014. This time, we have received permission from Sawako Omori and Geijutsu Shinbunsha Co., Ltd. to reprint this work.

Index

• Supported by people who like the cutting edge
• From multipurpose hall to mini theater
• Conflict with headquarters over CM
• “Whisper of Bees” sets a record of mobilization
• Smartphones don't convey the quality

Supported by people who like the cutting edge

WAVE, the culture building in Roppongi, Tokyo, opened in 1983 and had a big impact.Cine Vivant Roppongi on the first basement floor was located in the opposite direction across the Roppongi intersection from the late show specialty hall Haiyuza Cinema Ten. Along with , it became Roppongi's pioneering mini-theater.

Cinematenne preferred adult films with a gorgeous atmosphere, such as Luchino Visconti's `` Death in Venice '' (1971) and James Avory's `` A Room with a View '' (1986), Vivant's style was more avant-garde, attracting a younger clientele with an appreciation for cutting-edge culture.

I wanted to hear about the time when the theater opened, so I met Seiichi Tsukada again, its former manager. He was the theater's first manager, and in the late 1990s he distributed and promoted Vincent Gallo's `` Buffalo '66' ' (1998) through his company Kinetic, which became a record-breaking hit. I once interviewed him when he was at Kinetic, but it's been a long time since I last heard from him.

First, let's look at the theater programs for `` Koyaniskatti '' (1982) and `` Green Ray '' (1985), which were screened at Cine Vivant in the 1980s.

"It's nostalgic... That theater is now a movie village that has sunk beneath a huge dam."

This is what he says about the relationship between Roppongi Hills and Cine Vivant. As I wrote last time, the place where Cine Vivant once stood has now been absorbed into the Roppongi Hills building group.

“However, it seems that there had been talk of building Hills since back then, and WAVE was a building with a limited time limit.”

WAVE, which housed Cine Vivant, was in business for only 16 years, and closed in 1999 at the turn of the century.

“Originally, WAVE was a building that started with the idea of ​​creating a comprehensive building for sound and video.There was a movie theater called Cine Vivant, and above that was a record shop where I collected records like a sommelier. was a recording studio.It had a three-part structure.There is a story that when singer Michael Jackson came to Japan, he rented out WAVE to play.It is now something of an urban legend, but... I'm sure there was no other building like it."

From multipurpose hall to mini theater