A DISCREET LOOK AT MODERN JAPAN : CAFE LUMIERE

Steer clear of Café Lumiere if you are of the “Alice in Wonderland” school of thought when it comes to films. I mean of course, those of you who think a film is pointless without pictures or conversation. Admittedly, it is pretty difficult to imagine a film without either so let me elaborate…
I personally found this film very refreshing in a lot of ways. Its whole ambiance and the techniques the director uses are as far as they can be from every day western cinema. The viewer is placed in the position of witness to a young woman’s everyday life. Thus we arrive at the part where I will tell you the film has “no pictures”, because we do not follow her around as such. In fact, throughout the film, the camera is usually placed in one position or another depending on where we are, but rarely moves ( I counted a total of two panning movements throughout the film and that’s it) So we are presented with only one perspective, sitting in a corner of the room without moving so to speak. Action takes place on and/ or off screen. Conversations take place, certainly, but if the phone rings, we only hear the character in the room. And another point to add is that there is no “movie magic” at all. Chance encounters do not take us to the root of some family issue, we pick up the back-ground through snippets of conversation we hear or things we observe. Of course there is a story, but like the life we witness and in fact the life we live, it takes its own pace to unravel and there is nothing you can do about it but wait for it to be done. Apart from turning off the T.V. of course :)
And so throughout this quiet and understated film, we watch Yoko make life-decisions, witness her relationship with her parents and her close friends, catch a glimpse of modern-day Japan. And as we do so, we get to learn about the Taiwanese composer Jiang Wen-Ye ( a real composer incidentally) that she is researching, listen to many of his compositions ( an aspect I found fascinating) and even witness a short interview with his wife ( also real)
I loved Café Lumiere and the fact that it is the proud owner of a Golden Lion from the Venice film festival says something for it, but definitely not everyone’s cup of tea…