Jerzy Skolimowski

Director / Actor

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Born in Poland, Skolimowski is a film director, scriptwriter, painter and actor. A graduate of the prestigious Polish Film School in Ľódź, Skolimowski has directed more than 20 films in and outside of Poland.
He teamed up with Roman Polański, writing the script of Knife in the Water in 1962, then completed several semi-autobiographical features: Rysopis, Walkover, Barrier, and Hands Up. Moonlighting, starring Jeremy Irons, is critically and commercially his most successful film. His first US production, The Lightship, starring Robert Duvall, won Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival. Two of his films won awards in Cannes Film Festival: Grand Prix du Jury for The Shout and Silver Palm for Moonlighting. He also won the Golden Bear in Berlin for Le Depart. His last film, Four Nights with Anna, won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Skolimowski currently resides in Malibu, California and Warsaw, Poland.

MESSAGE TO THE FESTIVAL

Japan and its culture are the purest source of inspiration for me. As a filmmaker, I have always admired Akira Kurosawa. As a painter, I owe a lot to Japanese calligraphy masters, especially the 18th Century's Jiun Onko. But I'm impressed not only by the classics: I recall my first trip to Japan, when due to jet lag I couldn't sleep at night and kept cruising Tokyo streets till dawn. Among the uncharacteristically empty streets, all the signs - whatever they were: advertisements, shop signs, public notices - attracted my eyes with incredible strength. That experience left a mark on many of my paintings. Every trip to Japan, and especially for TIFF, is always something I will look forward to.

Caroline Champetier

Director of Photography

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Caroline Champetier belongs to the first generation of female Directors of Photography (DP) for feature films in the 80s. She graduated from IDHEC, now called FEMIS, the most prestigious school of cinema in France with an excellent result. She worked as a member of the crew of the great French DP, William Lubtchansky for 9 years. In 1985, she was contacted by Jean-Luc Godard who was "looking for someone who knows a bit but not much" and worked with him for 2 years, shooting Keep Your Right Up, Grandeur et décadence d'un petit commerce de cinéma, Puissance de la parole, the introduction to King Lear and History of Cinema. 10 years later, she again shot his films Hélas pour moi and Les enfants jouent à la Russie.
She has worked with many renowned French filmmakers such as Jacques Doillon, Philippe Garrel, Benoit Jacquot, Andre Techine, Jacques Rivette, and Barbet Schroeder, as well as young directors and foreign filmmakers including Nobuhiko Suwa and Naomi Kawase in Japan. She also taught at FEMIS and wrote a column in the "Cahier du Cinema" for a year.
She is currently the president of the French Cinematographers Association. She has just finished working on a film by Jacques Doillon and is currently preparing for a new film.

MESSAGE TO THE FESTIVAL

My relationship with Japan always happened through movies.
First, when I was an IDHEC student I had a teacher of film analysis who was very fond of Japanese masters, and I was deeply moved by the female characters of Ozu and Mizoguchi.
Then as a DP I had the chance to be contacted by Nobuhiro Suwa because of the {Hélas pour moi}, the photography I did for Jean-Luc Godard, and I came to Japan to work on H Story.
For a DP, going to Japan is like to be born another time to photography:
the light, the interiors, the streets, all the visual signs are so different.
Without talking that much, Suwa San and me, we worked very close to each other and I understood a little about Japanese way of thinking. Then I worked for Naomi Kawase on a feature and later came back with Leos Carax, shooting in Tokyo was so exciting.

To be there in October as member of the jury of the Tokyo Festival with such directors as A.G. Iñárritu and J. Skolimowski, actors such as Mieko Harada and Yoo Ji-tae, and cinémathèque director M. Matsumoto is again making Japan my elected cinema country.

Yoo Ji Tae

Actor / Director

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Born in Seoul on April 13, 1976. Dreaming of becoming an actor since he was at high school, he went on to the School of Arts and Crafts, Dankook University. He made his debut as an actor in 1988 in Bye June (Bai Jun), then appeared in a string of films across genres, including Attack the Gas Station! (1999）, Remember Me (2000), One Fine Spring Day (2001), Into the Mirror (2003) and Old Boy (2003), and left strong impressions. Taking a strong interest in production, he then went to Chung-Ang University, Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science, Multimedia & Film. He has directed four short films to date. He also made his first appearance in a TV drama earlier this year. He is an actor and director who does not settle for one role but pursues his dream of operating in various capacities through interacting with many people.

MESSAGE TO THE FESTIVAL

As a movie lover, it is always a pleasure to meet with lots of people from around the world through film festivals regardless of which one. Film festivals give us a great opportunity to encounter viewpoints of the world in a wide variety. Films present multifarious perspectives of the world to the large number of people. The ideas of the director, actors and staff, and not just of myself, but everyone involved are always taken account in the making. As one of the charmed, I have followed films, and am honored to share the joy with many others on the Green Carpet. I hope the kind and passionate sentiments and ideas of the assembled will convey to many others in the world.

Masamichi Matsumoto

Director, Cinémathèque

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He has been the program director of Athénée Français Cultural Center (a Cinémathèque run by a language school) since 1979, where he screens over 200 films from across the world every year under the theme “to re-evaluate classic films and to discover modern films”. He has put together special programs featuring Daniel Schmid, Chris Marker, Straub-Huillet, and others. He also joined as the coordinator for Tokyo Summer Festival 1987 – American Cinema and Music, Film Festival for the bicentenary of the French Revolution (1989) and Kokumin Bunkasai Gunma in TAKASAKI Symposium - 21st century and the potential of film expressions (2001). Since 2000, he has started serving concurrently as the President of The Film School of Tokyo (joint representative), where he supports and nurtures independent filmmakers. In 2003, he assumed the position as chairman of Community Cinema Support Center, where he promotes the establishment of a system to secure screening locations with joint cooperation of the government and private. He was Associate Producer to Daniel Schmid’s The Written Face (1994), author and editor for Geijutsu Keieigaku Koza (Eizo Hen). He took the managerial chair at the International Film Symposium at the 1992 and 1993 Tokyo International Film Festival.

MESSAGE TO THE FESTIVAL

As the Director of Cinémathèque, I have been trying to re-evaluate classic films as well as to discover the latest modern films. In addition, I have been exploring, "the nature of films in the 21st century", through film production with independent creators and students at small film schools like a ciné-club. I have also wished for a variety of films to be shown in various regions both in Japan and abroad under the name of "Community Cinema", which will encourage the opportunity for more to share emotions from the screen.
For me, films have a celestial resemblance that give off an aura in the darkness of theaters, just as it is a reproductive art. This year, I will be participating as a member of the jury. The momentousness of my responsibility makes me nervous, yet I am already looking forward in hope to encounter such sanctity in the hand-picked modern films.