I was just wondering if anyone here has ever seen the movie Diva. It's a pretty artsy French film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix in 1981. IMDB page's located at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082269/
The reason I bring this up is because Diva strongly reminded me of certain parts of SKU. In fact, I'm ready to go out on a limb and say Ikuhara must've been at least somewhat influenced by Diva when he was directing SKU. The whole movie has a surreal atmosphere that felt a lot like SKU's own blend of surrealism to me. It's difficult to explain in words, but the directing style of Diva and SKU are very similiar (I'd call it Ikuhara-esque, for lack of a better word). For example, just like the Seitokai members in Utena who start to throw knives or cook shish-kebabs during meetings, the characters in Diva do seemingly unrelated yet significant things while discussing current events. Only in their case, they practise indoor rollerskating or make sandwiches while wearing scuba gear. Add some quick cuts to obtuse visual metaphors, and it all starts to feel very... well, Ikuhara-esque.
There are scenes in a lighthouse about two thirds into the movie and lengthy shots of a curvy white sports car that strongly remined me of the way Ikuhara composed the shots of Akio's observatory tower and his car respectively. There are even a lot of shared themes between SKU and Diva. Both have a warped fairy-tale motif going on, and both have something to say about women's struggle to obtain freedom and equality (in short, feminism). Diva is an obscure film, though, so I have yet to meet someone else who's familiar with both Diva and SKU -and- sees the same similiarities as I do. Any takers?

Last edited by Toasty (10-29-2006 08:58:02 AM)