Tower Theatre film festival to focus on animation from iconic Japanese production house
The Tower Theatre by Angelika this month will screen four critically-acclaimed animated films by the iconic Japanese production house Studio Ghibli.
The Broadway-area theatre, a landmark art deco cinema that prides itself on featuring independent, foreign and specialty films, annually hosts Studio Ghibli screenings each week during the summer. This year, with a late start, Tower will host an abbreviated version of the festival.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Studio Ghibli is a critically acclaimed animation studio whose pictures have reached international prominence.
Since its founding in 1983 by directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki, it has produced 19 films, as well as several shorts, commercials and a television movie. The studio’s films are considered highly influential within the animation industry.
The first film of this year’s lineup — which screened Aug. 7 and Aug. 9 — is “Lupin the 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro,” a 1979 action-adventure comedy about a blunderous gentleman thief’s attempt to rob a casino. Next on the schedule is the 1997 fantastical epic “Princess Mononoke,” which features a cursed young warrior on an epic quest to find a cure to save his life.
After that, the theater will show “Kiki’s Delivery Service” (1998), Disney and Miyazaki’s first collaboration and a rumination on the dichotomy between dependence and freedom experienced by a teenage girl. And finally, the festival will finish with the post-apocalyptic manga adaptation “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.”
“The Ghibli films are classic anime, it’s kind of the benchmark that all other anime is held up to,” said Dave Parker, the general manager of the theater.
“They are a great combination of storytelling and action, and they flow really well. They’re all so entertaining and they have a sense of a fantasy to them that is just amazing,” Parker said. “I don’t know. They’re just really fun to watch.”
Each film will be screened twice: at 11 a.m. Saturdays with English dubbing, and 7 p.m. Mondays with the original Japanese audio and accompanying English subtitles. To purchase tickets or find more information, visit http://www.angelikafilmcenter.com/Tower.