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Satoshi Kon Documentary Premieres at Festival de Cannes 2021
posted on by Adriana Hazra
Carlotta Films announced on Saturday that its upcoming French documentary film Satoshi Kon, l'illusionniste (previously titled Satoshi Kon: La Machine À Rêves) will have its world premiere at the Festival de Cannes 2021, which will take place from July 6-17. The film will screen in the "Cannes Classics 2021: the documentaries" section of the festival.
The company previously streamed a teaser for the film that listed a 2020 release date, but the film's release window was not yet confirmed at the time due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation. Carlotta Films later posted an extended trailer in March, which has since been removed, which stated the film was "coming soon."
The documentary will feature interviews with: Mamoru Oshii, Mamoru Hosoda, Masao Maruyama, Tarō Maki, Masashi Ando, Aya Suzuki, Masaaki Usada, Sadayuki Murai, Hiroyuki Okiura, Masafumi Mima, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Nobutaka Ike, Junko Iwao, Megumi Hayashibara, Shōzō Iizuka, Jeremy Clapin, Marc Caro, Marie Pruvost-Delaspre, Alexis Blanchet, Dimitri Megherbi, Yael Ben Nun, Rodney Rothman, Darren Aronofsky, and Andrew Osmond.
Satoshi Kon passed away on August 24, 2010.
Kon began working as a manga creator on such works as Kaikisen (1990) before deciding to delve into the anime industry with the art design of Hiroyuki Kitakubo and Katsuhiro Ōtomo's Roujin Z video in 1991. He then worked on the script and art direction of "Magnetic Rose," a segment of Otomo's 1995 science-fiction anthology film Memories.
Kon first drew worldwide attention with his feature film directorial debut, the psychological suspense film Perfect Blue, in 1997. He would follow that with a string of critically acclaimed anime projects: Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Paranoia Agent (2004), and Paprika (2006). At the time of his passing, Kon was working at Madhouse on a feature film called Yume-Miru Kikai (The Dreaming Machine). Madhouse announced later that year that it had resumed production on Yume-Miru Kikai, but the project remains unfinished. Masao Maruyama most recently stated in August 2018 that the film is still unfinished. He also reported at the same time that that a script is being written for an anime adaptation of Satoshi Kon's OPUS manga.
Sources: Press release, Festival de Cannes' website, My Canal (Jean François Frontera)
Disclaimer: Andrew Osmond, ANN's UK Editor, is one of the interviewees featured in the film. Andrew was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
