Talk event for The Romance of Astrée and Céladon

＜English＞

2009 February 4th

Hello everybody. Chief editor Yuki here.

On Sunday, January 25th I attended the second scheduled screening & talk event for the French Film "The Romance of Astrée and Céladon", and thought I'd post a brief note about it.

All in all 4 talk shows have been arranged for the film, and each one is comprised of different guests. Personally, I just had to see famed manga author Riyoko Ikeda, best known for her gender-bending work "The Rose of Versailles", speak along with French literature scholar Shohei Chujo.

I grew up in Switzerland and I can remember watching the tremendously popular animated television series "The Rose of Versailles" on French commercial television. The program was broadcast in many countries - and watched by many children - around the world. I still vividly recall my own fascination with the story's blurred gender lines, and the opportunity to attend a talk event featuring the author of such a queer masterpiece was thrilling for me!

At the event, I saw that Riyoko Ikeda is a very graceful and intelligent woman, with an attractively soft and articulate manner of speaking. Apparently she and Shohei Chujo had differing opinions on the final, quite remarkable scene of "The Romance of Astrée and Céladon".

Since I don't want to give away what actually happens in the film, I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say that both of them had considerable feeling for how the film ended and were roused into an enthusiastic conversation. (Also, since the talk show took place before the screening, they too seemed chagrined to be unable to talk about the final scene in detail!)

The film's ending itself has its own queer bent; I whole-heartedly recommend that those of you who are curious see this film for yourself!

The next talk event will feature Shogo Kariyazaki.

●The Romance of Astrée and Céladon
●Opens: Saturday, January 17 at the Ginza Theatre Cinema and other theaters across Japan
●© Rezo Productions / C.E.R.
●Distribution: Alcine Terran
●Official homepage (Japan): www.alcine-terran.com/wagaai/

【Talk Event: Line Up】

Sunday, January 18:
Talk event starts at 7:00 pm; Film scheduled to start at 7:15 pm
Guests: Nameko Shinsan (columnist & manga artist), Maho Shimao (columnist & manga artist)

Sunday, January 25:
Talk event starts at 6:50 pm; Film scheduled to start at 7:05 pm
Guests: Riyoko Ikeda (manga artist & vocalist), Shohei Chujo (scholar of French literature)

Saturday, January 31:
Talk event starts at 6:50 pm; Film scheduled to start at 7:05 pm
Guest: Hideo Shinozawa (Emeritus Professor at Gakushuin University)

Thursday, February 19:
Film starts at 6:50 pm (no previews); Talk event scheduled to start at 8:40
Guest: Shogo Kariyazaki (flower arrangement artist)

■Venue: Ginza Theatre Cinema

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