Millennium Actress + Perfect Blue
A Satoshi Kon Double Feature!
Millennium Actress (2001) – 6:40pm
Based loosely on the life and work of Ozu muse Hara Setsuko, Satoshi Kon’s stunning sophomore feature is a kaleidoscopic, time-skipping portrait of a reclusive actor looking back on her career. The clever meta-movie follows a two-man documentary crew as they set about interviewing Fujiwara Chiyoko, a former studio star who withdrew from public life after retiring decades earlier. Her story transports the pair through a century of Japanese cinema and history, as past and present, memories and movie roles, start to blur. Kon co-wrote the script with Perfect Blue screenwriter Murai Sadayuki; as in that film, the boundaries between inner and outer realities are erased—albeit here in a more fanciful, less maniacal manner!
Perfect Blue (1997) – 8:40pm
Rising pop star Mima has quit singing to pursue a career as an actress and model, but her fans aren’t ready to see her go… Encouraged by her managers, Mima takes on a recurring role on a popular TV show, when suddenly her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima’s reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia. As her stalker closes in, in person and online, the threat he poses is more real than even Mima knows, in this iconic psychological thriller that has frequently been hailed as one of the most important animated films of all time. “Dark, disturbing and insanely beautiful… The Stanley Kubrick of Anime” -Vice.
Millennium Actress also plays Friday, April 7 at 9:30p.
Perfect Blue also plays Wednesday, April 12 at 9:30p.
