Continuing with another movie poster, here's one from Isao Takahata's 1982 classic, Gauche the Cellist. It's one of two different poster designs for the film, and has a colorful, children's book quality. It's very nice and focuses on the animals, while the other Gauche poster focuses on the orchestra.
To me, this movie is one of Takahata's triumphs. I know, that sounds like easy praise coming from one who hails Paku-San as a cinematic genius. I sound like a child with a free box of breakfast cereal. So, as always, Caveat emptor. That said, this is a masterful movie, one that weaves rural nostalgia with a love of nature, and the miraculous power of music - joining Beethoven's Pastorale to Kenji Miyazawa's famous children's story is a masterstroke. I've never heard the 6th Symphony sound better.
Gauche the Cellist is a peaceful, thoughtful. Takahata's Totoro? That's what I've always believed. That this film remains virtually unknown in the West (save a DVD release in France) is nothing short of criminal negligence. This movie deserves to be seen by the world.
2 comments:
Even the French DVD is not really available anymore... Consequently, I have never been able to see it so far. Maybe someday even Takahata films that cannot be marketed with something like "Miyazaki animated on it" will get a decent DVD release somewhere in the west.
We watch it regularly at home. For a long time it was just a nice peaceful option if our toddler wanted something to watch, and in the process I came to enjoy it more with every viewing. At first I considered it a subtle curiousity; I now consider it a minor masterpiece.
My daughter is 5 now, and still requests it every now and then. It fact, it will forever be her first film where she voluntarily read the subtitles, pausing to keep up. (It's helpfully low on dialogue.) You can imagine how happy that makes an anime fan dad.
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