live-action versions of anime

[davemerrill]

The TIFF Bell Lightbox is screening the LADY OSCAR movie tomorrow night; it's the 1979 Jacques Demy film version of ROSE OF VERSAILLES with an all-European cast, shot in English.

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiffb ... 2330021407

Jacques Demy adapted the popular Japanese comic book Rose de Versailles for this flamboyant musical romance about a swashbuckling heroine who disguises herself as a man and ultimately serves as bodyguard to Marie Antoinette.
"A total delight: quite rare and imaginative, like Chanel-on-the-rocks" (San Francisco Film Festival). Shot in English, financed by Japanese producers and distributed by Toho, the improbably titled and extravagantly mounted Lady Oscar was based on the phenomenally popular Japanese manga Rose de Versailles, a sprawling, multi-volume tale of a girl raised as a boy who ends up as bodyguard to Marie Antoinette. Besotted with the swashbuckling heroine's flamboyant escapades, Demy transformed the strip into one of his beloved musical-romances: "I evolved the kind of picaresque structure I like best in cinema and which I already used in Lola and The Young Girls of Rochefort: a host of characters whose paths cross, diverge, reappear, diverge once more, and so on." Allowed to shoot in the gilded hallways, swank sanctums, and manicured gardens of Versailles, the director revels in the ancien régime luxe of it all: every second composition seems lifted from Watteau, and the grand perukes Demy lavishes on his porcelain-white actors would alone account for the budget of any other of his films. "A welcome return to the world that Demy has made uniquely his own.... Time and again, he creates sequences of pure magic" (David Meeker).

As God as my witness, I never ever thought that I'd ever see this film shown in theaters in any city I ever lived in. I have a iffy VHS copy from the Japanese laserdisc release, and it's definitely a curiosity. It fails to match the grandeur and the color (especially the color) of the TMS anime series, but then again I don't know that anybody that's not Baz Luhrmann could do that. It's probably the best live-action Rose Of Versailles you'll see this side of the Takarazuka Revue.

[usamimi]

Oh wow, that's so cool! I've always been curious about that version, I've never seen it myself!

[kndy]

Photos from the set of the live action "Patlabor" film

[greg]

Yes, my friend sent me pics of this today! Thank GOD they're using a real giant prop, instead of a bunch of blue screen and CG! Of course it will have CG in it, but to have actors interacting with a tangible robot will add much more realism to the movie.

[usamimi]

YESSSSS I posted a link to those pics on my Tumblr, SO COOL! I bet it must've been kind of surreal for the residents living there to wake up and see a GIANT ROBOT being hauled around outside!

[PinkAppleJam]

Re Lady Oscar; how lucky! And what a great write-up with awesome quotations. Have fun!

It fails to match the grandeur and the color (especially the color) of the TMS anime series, but then again I don't know that anybody that's not Baz Luhrmann could do that.

What an amazing concept. I can envision that so well. <3

That Patlabor mech looks immense. Much better than any CGI. Also I take it it's pronounced "Pat-lay-burr" as in "work = labor" and "one of our rubbish political parties", not "Pat-labborr" as I've been stupidly calling it for years. xD

[SteveH]

Re Lady Oscar; how lucky! And what a great write-up with awesome quotations. Have fun!

It fails to match the grandeur and the color (especially the color) of the TMS anime series, but then again I don't know that anybody that's not Baz Luhrmann could do that.

What an amazing concept. I can envision that so well. <3

That Patlabor mech looks immense. Much better than any CGI. Also I take it it's pronounced "Pat-lay-burr" as in "work = labor" and "one of our rubbish political parties", not "Pat-labborr" as I've been stupidly calling it for years. xD

I would pay money to see a Baz Luhrmann 'Lady Oscar' movie. I would. I am completely in love with his Moulin Rouge and don't understand why more people don't see the brilliant frission of audio mixing and... um.

Anyway, yes, Labor as in labour. Pat as in 'Patrol Car'.

I'm glad to see a full sized prop being used. Actors do so much better when they have something to play against and react to and with. It gives them connection. I wonder if that Ingram has a cockpit with functioning hatches.

[Animusubi]

I would pay money to see a Baz Luhrmann 'Lady Oscar' movie. I would. I am completely in love with his Moulin Rouge and don't understand why more people don't see the brilliant frission of audio mixing and... um.

That...is an amazing idea.

[usamimi]

I would pay money to see a Baz Luhrmann 'Lady Oscar' movie. I would. I am completely in love with his Moulin Rouge and don't understand why more people don't see the brilliant frission of audio mixing and... um.

THIS, omg. That would be just...amazing. AMAZING <3

I'm glad to see a full sized prop being used. Actors do so much better when they have something to play against and react to and with. It gives them connection. I wonder if that Ingram has a cockpit with functioning hatches.

I was curious about that, too--they might just have a separate "set" for the interior of it, but wouldn't it just be so cool if it opened up and you could get into it like the anime/manga version?!

[SteveH]

I would pay money to see a Baz Luhrmann 'Lady Oscar' movie. I would. I am completely in love with his Moulin Rouge and don't understand why more people don't see the brilliant frission of audio mixing and... um.

THIS, omg. That would be just...amazing. AMAZING <3

I'm glad to see a full sized prop being used. Actors do so much better when they have something to play against and react to and with. It gives them connection. I wonder if that Ingram has a cockpit with functioning hatches.

I was curious about that, too--they might just have a separate "set" for the interior of it, but wouldn't it just be so cool if it opened up and you could get into it like the anime/manga version?!

To be fair, Dave actually inferred the Baz/Oscar concept, I just spelled it out, so all credit should be his.

I would assume a separate set for the Ingram cockpit but there's no reason why they couldn't have a somewhat simplified 'practical' cockpit in the giant prop. It would allow actor interaction for scenes in the maintenance bay. I'm hoping they're using the living daylights out of that prop because there's plenty of potential scenes that would benefit.

Mind, I didn't even KNOW a live Patlabor was in production until recently. Crazy times.