The Song of Stone

Ishi no uta

Japan

1963

24 Min

Black and White

Japanese

Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
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While extracting and polishing their blocks of stone, stonecutters used to say the stone is coming to life. This paradox provided Matsumoto with the best metaphor for what making a film is all about. In his opinion, filmmakers work images in the same way that stonecutters work stones. —Expcinema.com

Director

Toshio Matsumoto

Toshio Matsumoto (born March 25, 1932) is a Japanese film director and video artist. He was born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan and graduated from Tokyo University in 1955.

His first short was Ginrin, which he made in 1955, however his most famous film is Funeral Parade of Roses (Bara no soretsu). Funeral Parade of Roses influenced Stanley Kubrick’s film A Clockwork Orange heavily. The film was a retelling of Oedipus Rex, featuring a transsexual (portrayed by Peter) trying to move up in the world of the Japanese gay bars.

Matsumoto has published many books of photography and is currently a professor and Dean of Arts at the Kyoto University of Art and Design. He was also the President of the Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences. —Wikipedia