{"id":66734,"date":"2013-07-10T13:36:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T17:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=66734"},"modified":"2017-11-03T14:27:40","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T18:27:40","slug":"bpin-spanish-david-george-blasco-ibanez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2013\/07\/10\/bpin-spanish-david-george-blasco-ibanez\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk by Lecturer in Spanish David George previewed in European press"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"David<\/a>

David George, lecturer in Spanish.<\/p><\/div>\n

Research by David George, lecturer in Spanish, figured prominently in Continental news reports<\/a> about a seminar in Spain dedicated to novelist Vicente Blasco Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez.<\/p>\n

Not widely known in the U.S. nowadays, Blasco Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez was famous internationally in the 1920s, and Hollywood adapted several of his novels. Held July 3-5, the conference at the Universidad Internacional\u00a0Men\u00e9ndez Pelayo, in Valencia, looked specifically at the author’s influence on cinema.<\/p>\n

George looked at the author’s influence on Japanese film, not American. He discussed his rediscovery of two 1924 films adapted from the fiction of Blasco Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez:\u00a0Osumi to haha<\/i>\u00a0(“Osumi and her mother”), based on the story \u201cThe Old Woman of the Cinema,\u201d and\u00a0Wakasa yo saraba\u00a0<\/i>(“Farewell, youth!”), from the novel\u00a0Woman Triumphant<\/i>.<\/p>\n

“At the summit of his international fame, Blasco Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez was received as a real celebrity” in Japan during a 1923-24 visit, writes George. That buzz helped inspire a rash of translations of his work and, later in 1924, the film productions.<\/p>\n

During his short visit, Blasco Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez was surprised to find his picture alongside that of the movie star Rudolph Valentino by the door of a Kyoto cinema showing\u00a0Blood and Sand<\/i>, one of the Hollywood adaptations of his work.<\/p>\n

George’s presentation concluded that if Blasco didn’t influence the development of Japanese cinema directly, his works did influence a reform of Japanese cinematic language that gave way to directors such as Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.<\/p>\n