[Mini Theater Revisited] No. 24 Shibuya style trend, hot summer of mini theaters...Part 1 Shibuya's charisma, the beginning of Cinema Rise

Stretched teens are also in the audience

This kind of attitude may have been in common with Cinemarise at the time. In the book's afterword, the managing director writes of his impressions of Vachon himself:

``The translator first met Christine Vachon shortly after Cinemarise ended its contract with a major film company and started as a completely independent movie theater, and a screening of ``Poison'' was held. After deciding on the film, she came to Japan to conduct market research in Japan.(She was just starting out) and talked passionately about the kind of film that would move people's hearts and that she and her friends were going to make. He was talking.”

Vachon's works have been screened at Cinemarise, and while they are provocative and radical, they also have elements of entertainment, a characteristic that can be seen in other works screened at this theater. right.

In 1993, director Quentin Tarantino's shocking debut film `` Reservoir Dogs, '' which received attention at the Cannes Film Festival, was shown, but as you can see from Tarantino's subsequent works, he is sprinkled with maniacal obsession. A characteristic of Tarantino's films is that they have elements of entertainment, and the actors who appear in them are also talented.

As for the aforementioned Todd Haynes film, ` `Velvet Goldmine' ', which follows the triumphs and failures of those who lived in glam rock, now stars actors such as Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. You can see actors who are active in major works in their younger days.

Cinemarise's works were highly artistic, but many of them also contained sex appeal and entertainment.

This is perhaps the main difference between Roppongi's Cine Vivant Roppongi, which was a hot topic at the time as a cutting-edge, art-oriented mini-theater. A regular writer for Cine Vivant's programs is Shigehiko Hasumi, a critic of the New Academia school, who writes about the advanced intelligence and culture of Europe such as Jean-Luc Godard, Victor Erice, Theo Angelopoulos, and Daniel Schmitt. Screenings of works that evoked feelings were notable.

However, despite their artistic sensibilities, Cinemarise's films had a more fashionable feel, and included elements of sex, drugs, and (occasionally) rock'n'roll (they also screened many films featuring gays and lesbians). ing).

The middle school students who appear in the copies of `` Drugstore Cowboy '' that I saw at DVD shops seem to have skipped school and went to see this movie, and Cinemarise had an atmosphere that attracted these teens as well. (``Drugstore Cowboy'' is a story about the journey of a junkie played by Matt Dillon, and is a film that chronicles the journey of an Outsider's mind).

Cine Vivant Roppongi was probably not a place that a teenage Outsider would like to enter. This may be due to the difference in the individuality of the cities of Roppongi and Shibuya.

`` Trainspotting '', a blockbuster film that takes full advantage of Shibuya's delinquent personality, will finally be released in 1996.

(Next time, Cinemarise's representative and managing director will look back on a number of hit films, including the blockbuster hit "Trainspotting")

◉Cinema Rise was located at 13-17 Udagawa-cho, Shibuya-ku, up Spain Hill from the Center Gai side.

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Next time: [Mini Theater Revisited] No. 25 Shibuya style trend, hot summer of mini theaters...Part 2 "Trainspotting" and the season of Cinemarise

Text: Sawako Omori

Movie journalist. His books include "Lost Cinema" (Kawade Shobo Shinsha) and other books, and his translations include "Woody", a biography of Woody Allen (written by D. Evanier, Kinema Junposha). Contributes to magazines such as ``Music Magazine'' and ``Kinema Junpo.'' A research book based on the web series, ``Mini Theater Revisited,'' is also scheduled to be published.

*This article was serialized on a website run 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. In addition, ``Mini Theater Revisited'' has been significantly revised, new interviews have been added, and it is scheduled to be published as a book by Artes Publishing in 2021.