Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2010

©Eurowide & Foz

Fans of whimsical film will delight in French director François Ozon’s Ricky (2009; pictured), screening from November 27 at Bunkamura’s Le Cinema (2-24-1 Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku; www.bunkamura.co.jp). The magic realist comedy tells the story of a single mother struggling to raise her daughter in the suburbs of Paris. After she and her new boyfriend have a son, the story takes a turn toward the fantastic when they learn that the boy can fly.

Toho Cinema Chanter in Hibiya (1-2-2 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku; www.tohotheater.jp) is paying tribute to Jean-Luc Godard with a retrospective through the end of the year. The French director is very much in the news at the moment, as controversy rages over the decision to grant him an honorary Oscar, and rumors fly that his latest work, Film Socialisme, will be his last. Seminal works like À bout de souffle (1959) and Pierrot le fou (1965) will be screened, as will Moments choisis des histoire(s) du cinéma (2004), a sort of best-of compilation.

A retrospective of films featuring the magic of special effects creator Eiji Tsuburaya will run at Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com), December 1-7. Tsuburaya crafted iconic monsters for films such as Godzilla (1954) and Mothra (1961), and designed the stop-frame animation scenes in historical epics including The Birth of Japan (1959), all of which are featured in the program.