Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre
Hi,
we don't often show documentaries and I don't remember too many music ones either. There's a Ryuichi Sakamoto one coming out next month (on the anniversary of his death) - would you like it as part of the MNFC? No worries if not, we'll add it to the schedule anyway.
On March 28th, 2023, legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away after his struggle against cancer. In the years leading up to his death, Sakamoto could no longer perform live. Despite this, in late 2022, Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave the world with one final performance: a concert film, featuring just him and his piano.
Ryuichi Sakamoto: OPUS — Modern Films
Best wishes,
John
Connor McMorran
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Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre
Connor McMorran
Thank you again John for putting this on last night, it was for me a
truly profound experience and, as I said last night, a way to say
goodbye to a person who was and shall remain an inspiration for
me.
I thought the post-film discussion was very fruitful,
and thought I’d share a few thoughts that have been percolating in
my head.
Concerning this idea of objects, which become things through our time spent interacting with them, I was referring in part to Han Byung-chul’s book Non-Things, which is an intriguing look at ways to deal with the overwhelming immediacy of contemporary society. As he writes, ‘things in my possession are filled with emotions and recollections. The history that things acquire in the course of being used for a long time gives them souls and turns them into things close to the heart’. We might find parallels here with Sakamoto’s engagement with the piano, but also with the objects, things, found in Perfect Days, cassette tapes that become more than mere commodities, books that are given life through the time spent interacting with them.
I also thought about the finality of the performance, and how the image of a person rests for Barthes, as I said in the introduction, upon the tension between the moment of being recorded, and the future death that will follow. Instead, I find a more optimistic confirmation of life in the image, any image is dependent upon the life lived prior to the captured moment, and as such life-time becomes compounded into every image, every image carries an entire history of life within it, and as such it is a redemption of that life. If we consider John Berger’s oft-quoted aphorism, ‘to be desired is perhaps the closest anybody in this life can reach to feeling immortal,’ then perhaps we might find the image to be a fundamental tool in perpetuating acknowledgement, and with it, life.
A
person who did not stay for the post-film discussion but spoke to me
after the film revealed that he was friends with Sakamoto, and that
he saw the final shot of the empty chair as being similar to the way
in which empty chairs are left for departed family members. It’s a
thought that hadn’t crossed my mind, and which I forgot to bring up
during the discussion itself, and wanted to share here.
Finally,
I know that John was asking about an album of the performance, and
while I haven’t been able to locate one (it seems that Janus own
the film rights in the US, so I expect we will see it released on
blu-ray as part of the Criterion Collection, at least), I will point
out that Sakamoto did release Playing the Piano 12122020,
which features many of the songs
he performed in the film, and may function
as a suitable alternative until any future release.
Anyway, thank you again, and I’m looking forward to Evil Does Not Exist next week.
Best wishes to you all,
Connor
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Joanna Stankiewicz
On 23 Apr 2024, at 10:02, Connor McMorran <connorm...@gmail.com> wrote:
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/monday-night-film-club/CADBOnodKEjrRyp5H%2BM22ZAe9Zaa2S66DJPyanoh84Y0jeMGvBg%40mail.gmail.com.