THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
Things That Are Near Though Distant
-Paradise.
-The course of a sail boat.
-Relations between a man and a woman.
Sei Shōnagon "THE PILLOW BOOK"
DIRECTORS NOTES
This beautiful poem, written nearly thousand years ago by a Lady of the Imperial court of Japan, in just three short sentences describes with unimaginable precision something so complex that will reach thousands of volumes of studies, analyses, articles and essays to illuminate even few of the edges of its subject matter. Paradise, a concept associated with the supernatural and immortality and something so ephemeral (and poetic rather than just an image), the passage of a ship on the horizon, deliberately in succession, invoke the senses and the imagination. Just what one needs to understand little of the relationship Man-Woman.
Lafcadio Hearn, Irish and Greek from ancestry and Japanese from choice, in his short story "The Fountain of Youth" tries also, like Sei Shōnagon many centuries before, in the same subject matter: Relations between a man and a woman.
This also is the intention of the short film based on the exact short story: to approach in a different way "Things that are near though distant" and unbelievably "Strange" some times. As a homage to a writer who left behind a very large in volume and very high in quality work and succeeded to introduce the western readers in the wonders of Japanese literature, art and culture.
The preproduction of the film was the result of a workshop with the subject "Directing Animated Films"
tutor: PANAGIOTIS RAPPAS, participants: AGGELOKONSTANTI KATERINA, CHAGIMICHALI FLORA, GIANNAKOPOULOS GIANNIS, GIOVANIS THOMAS, EFSTRATIADIS DIMITRIS, ZOGRAFOU THOMAIS, THOFILOU EPAMINODAS, KALAMPALIKH PIGI, LITINA MARIA, POURPOUTIDIS GIORGOS, SGOUROS GIORGOS, TRIANTAPHYLLOS ELEUTHERIOU, TRIANTAFILOY THEODORA, TSIPOTH ZOE, TSITSIKAS THANASSIS
produced and directed
by
PANAGIOTIS RAPPAS
associate producers
DIMITRIS PAPADIMITRIOU, RALLOU VOGIATZI
based on the original story
by
LAFCADIO HEARN
adapted for the screen
by
PANAGIOTIS RAPPAS
music composed
by
DIMITRIS PAPADIMITRIOU
© Panagiotis Rappas - GREEK FILM CENTER -ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟ ΣΧΕΔΙΟ, 2011
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Vv8T1YzK-KU
