Cinema, Censorship, and the State The Writings of Nagisa Oshima, 1956-1978

Nagisa Oshima is generally regarded as the most important Japanese film. director after Kurosawa and is one of Japan's most productive and celebrated postwar artists. His early films represent the Japanese New Wave at its zenith, and the films he has made since (including In the Realm of the Senses and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence) have won international acclaim. The more than 40 writings that make up this intellectual autobiography reveal a rare conjunction of personal candor and political commitment. Entertaining, concise, disarmingingly insightful, they trace in vivid and carefully articulated detail the development of Oshima's theory and practice. The writings are arranged in chronological order and cover the period from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s. Following a historical overview of the contemporary Japanese cinema, a substantial section articulates the theoretical and political rationale of 0shima's film production. Among many other topics considered in his essays, Oshima questions the economics of film production, the ethics of the documentary film, censorship (both political and sexual), and the relation of aesthetics and social taboos.

Annette Michelson (1922–2018) was widely considered one of the twentieth century's most influential writers on film. During her more than five-decade career, she was an art editor and critic for the New York Herald Tribune, a writer for Artforum, a founding editor of the journal October, and Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. Some of Michelson's essays on film were collected in On the Eve of the Future: Selected Writings on Film (MIT Press).

Annette Michelson (1922–2018) was widely considered one of the twentieth century's most influential writers on film. During her more than five-decade career, she was an art editor and critic for the New York Herald Tribune, a writer for Artforum, a founding editor of the journal October, and Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. Some of Michelson's essays on film were collected in On the Eve of the Future: Selected Writings on Film (MIT Press).