Nuclear Celluloid

This is an interesting New York Times article by English scholar Peter Wynn Kirby that the concisely summarizes the most common historical analysis of the atomic monster movie and ties it together with the current nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plants. It strikes me as a little early to be performing film criticism related to this tragedy -- in fact, I cannot think of any time when such an article appeared so quickly into the news cycle surrounding a crisis -- but Kirby's points are nonetheless interesting for our purposes.

I have studied the atomic image in Japanese film in depth in the past and I think our screening of Akira in a few weeks will resonate strongly with the current crisis still fresh in our minds. For now, however, we must remove ourselves from the illusive and cathartic world of cinema and pray for the resolution of a real and terrifying crisis in Japan.