UMARETE WA KITA KEREDO

Yasujiro Ozu / ensemble 0

 

"The pleasure in the listening is cerebral as well as esthetic" - Cyclic Defrost (AU)

 

I Was Born But... (original title: Umarete Wa Mita Keredo) was one of the last silent films by Yasujiro Ozu (1932), reflecting a tumultuous 1930s Japan being shorn of its traditions. It focuses on the family of a typical white-collar worker (« salaryman »), his stay-at-home wife, and two school-age sons, who have just moved from Tokyo’s crowded center to an unfinished suburban development. As the boys struggle to find a place in the pecking order among neighborhood kids, they outwit the dandified young Taro and his bullying protector with their wily antics, only to be humiliated when their father plays jester to his boss, who happens to be Taro’s father. Ozu uses schoolboy politics to mock the hypocrisies of adult hierarchies. It's a poignant evocation of the tumult of childhood, as well as a showcase for Ozu's expertly timed comedy editing.
Ensemble 0 performs a totally original music (composed by 0's Sylvain Chauveau) played live during the film by a line-up of four musicians with vibraphone & glockenspiel, flute, and two acoustic guitars. This soundtrack is as much inspired by Japanese culture - the flute as a resurgence of the meditative power of the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute used in traditional music - as it is by American repetitive music, a major influence on the aesthetic of the ensemble.

 

Total duration: 90’

 

Personnel: Sylvain Chauveau (acoustic guitar), Júlia Gállego (flutes), Stéphane Garin (vibraphone, glockenspiel, clave, chime), Joël Merah (acoustic guitar)

 

We also perform a large ensemble version of the score, with new arrangements by ensemble 0's Joël Merah, by 13 musicians (2 acoustic guitars, flute, 2 percussions, clarinet, 2 violins, viola, 2 cellos, contrabass, piano)

 

Production: cinéma l’Atalante (Bayonne)
Past performances: cinéma l’Atalante (Bayonne) / Festival L'Heure d'Eté (Brussels) / P Festival (Tainan) / Institut Français (Tokyo) / Goethe Institute (Kyoto) / Oyoyo Shorin (Kanazawa) / Inryoji temple (Okayama) / Hidokei (Fukuoka) / Nowhere (Toyama) / Capilla Centro Cultural del Oriente (Bucaramanga) / Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogota) / Théâtre de Bourgogne (Dijon) / cinéma Bil Etxea (Baigorri)

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