Cinema
Woman in the Dunes
砂の女
Hiroshi Teshigahara · 1964
Synopsis
Niki Junpei, a Tokyo schoolteacher and amateur entomologist, goes looking for insects in the dunes of a coastal village and misses the last bus. The villagers offer him lodging: he is lowered by a rope ladder to the bottom of a sand pit, to the home of a young widow. Every night she clears away the sand, which the village sells, in exchange for water and food, according to Dennis Schwartz. In the morning, the ladder has gone, and he is expected to help her shovel.
Context
The screenplay is by the writer from whom the book comes, published in 1962, who drew it himself from his own text, and the music by Takemitsu Tōru, according to Dennis Schwartz. The film was produced outside the studios by Teshigahara Productions and the Art Theatre Guild, and shot at the Hamaoka dunes, in Shizuoka prefecture. It was released in Japan on 15 February 1964, then in a general version of one hundred and twenty-seven minutes. It was later nominated for the Oscar for foreign film and for directing.
Who it is for
Two hours in black and white, almost entirely set in a sand pit, around a man and a woman.
Prizes and reception
Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964, it was re-released in French cinemas in 2007.
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