WUSTL film series focuses on young starlets of Japanese cinema

Frustration, friendship, struggle, joy, anguish and love are among the emotions explored by some of Japan’s most talented young actresses as the Young Starlets in Japanese Cinema film festival debuts at Washington University in St. Louis Sept. 24 through Nov. 5. Among the films being shown is Kamikaze Girls, the 2004 film from director Nakashima Tetsuya.

Film & Media Archive hosts Home Movie Day

Washington University’s Film & Media Archive will host Home Movie Day Saturday, Oct. 16, from noon-4 p.m. at the West Campus Library and Conference Center. Home Movie Day is an annual event that invites the public to share and learn to care for their home movies shot on Regular 8mm, Super 8mm or 16mm film.

Exhibition to investigate the blonde in contemporary art

This month, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture,” the first museum show to investigate the strategic use of the blonde in contemporary art. The show starts Nov. 16 and runs through Jan. 28, 2008.

Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Nov. 16 to Jan. 28

Mildred Lane Kemper Art MuseumRoy Lichtenstein,*Crying Girl,* 1963.The blonde has been an iconic and highly influential ideal of feminine beauty in American culture since the mid-20th century. Yet beginning with American Pop Art in the early 1960s, the blonde has also become a touchstone for artistic representation and critical inquiry. In November, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present Beauty and the Blonde: An Exploration of American Art and Popular Culture, the first museum show to investigate the strategic use of the blonde in contemporary art. Organized by Catharina Manchanda, Ph.D., curator of the Kemper Art Museum, the exhibition will survey how artists have interpreted the blonde in a wide range of visual media, from prints, painting and sculpture to collage, film, video, photography and interactive web projects. Also featured will be a selection of advertisements, magazines, cartoons, film posters, album covers, Barbie imagery and other materials — mainly from the 1950s and 60s — that have helped to shape popular notions about the blonde.

‘Brokeback Mountain’ might be ultimate ‘chick flick’ in Japan, says literature expert

America’s conflicted cultural obsession with the gay cowboy movie “Brokeback Mountain” might seem old-fashioned in Japan where stories of love and romance between beautiful young men have been entertaining women for more than a decade, suggests Rebecca Copeland, Ph.D., a Japanese studies professor at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to movies, male-male romance is a popular theme in a variety of other Japanese pop culture media, including book-length graphic novels and comics, known as manga, and an array of animated cartoons and television action series, known as anime. All of which have developed cult followings on the Internet and among fans of late-night cable television programming, including large numbers of American teens. More…