Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Movie Details:
French title | Saules aveugles, femme endormie |
Based on | Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman The Elephant Vanishes After the Quake by Haruki Murakami |
Country | Canada, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands |
Language | French |
Genre | Animation, Drama, Sci-Fi |
Release date | June 15, 2022 (Annecy) |
Running time | 1hr 48min |
Starring | See below |
Directed by | Pierre Földes |
Written by | Pierre Földes |
Produced by | Pierre Baussaron Tom Dercourt Emmanuel-Alain Raynal Pierre Urbain David Mouraire Luc Déry Kim McCraw Galilé Marion-Gauvin Antoine Coutant Pierre Földes Joost de Vries |
Cinematography by | Étienne Boilard |
Edited by | Kara Blake |
Music by | Pierre Földes |
Production Company | Miyu Productions Cinéma Defacto Doghouse Films micro_scope Productions L’Unité Centrale An Original Picture Studio MA Arte France Cinéma Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma |
Distributor | Gébéka Films (France) Maïson 4:3 (Canada) Bantam Film (Netherlands) |
Box office collection | $66,612 |
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Movie Cast & Characters:
- Amaury de Crayencour as Komura (voice)
- Mathilde Auneveux as Kyoko (voice)
- Arnaud Maillard as Katagiri (voice)
- Bruno Paviot as Sasaki (voice)
- Féodor Atkine as M. Suzuki (voice)
- Pierre Földes as Frog (voice)
- Théophile Baquet as Junpei (voice)
- Julien Crampon as Hiroshi (voice)
- Damien Zanoly as Shiraoka (voice)
- Laurent Stocker as Ken (voice)
- Jean-Pierre Malignon as Directeur du restaurant (voice)
- Jean-Pierre Kalfon as Vieil homme (voice)
- Isabelle Vitari as Keiko (voice)
- Géraldine Schitter as Shimao (voice)
- Ingrid Donnadieu as Infirmière (voice)
- Marie-Christine Barrault as Mère de Komura (voice)
- Noée Abita as Jeune fille (voice)
- Ryan Bommarito as Komura (voice)
- Shoshana Wilder as Kyoko (voice)
- Marcelo Arroyo as Katagiri (voice)
- Scott Humphrey as Sasaki (voice)
- Arthur Holden as Mr Suzuki (voice)
- Jesse Noah Gruman as Junpei (voice)
- Michael Czyz as Hiroshi (voice)
- Alex Ivanovici as Shiraoka
- Zag Dorison as Ken (voice)
- John Vamvas as Manager (voice)
- Cora Kim as Keiko (voice)
- Katharine King So as Shimao (voice)
- Nadia Verrucci as Nurse (voice)
Storyline:
A giant talkative frog, a lost cat, and a tsunami help a bank employee, his wife and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives.
About Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Movie:
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (French: Saules aveugles, femme endormie) is an animated anthology drama film written, produced, directed and composed by Pierre Földes. An international co-production of Canada, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands
The film, set in Tokyo shortly after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, adapts six short stories from three collections by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, The Elephant Vanishes and After the Quake (including “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”, “Birthday Girl”, “The Wind-up Bird and Tuesday’s Women”, “UFO in Kushiro”, and “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo”), focusing on a bank employee who a talking frog enlists to assist him in saving the city from destruction by a giant subterranean worm.
To create a version of 3D motion capture animation within a 2D film, Földes filmed his entire screenplay as a live-action “reference” performance, following which the animators replaced the actors’ heads with 3D models and then traced and animated their facial expressions.
The voice cast includes Marcello Arroyo, Michael Czyz, Zag Dorison, Földes, Jesse Noah Gruman, Katharine King So, John Vamvas, Nadia Verrucci, and Shoshana Wilder.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman premiered in the feature film competition at the 2022 Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it was awarded a Jury Distinction, and was later screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the festival’s Contemporary World Cinema section.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Movie Release Date:
Country | Release Date |
---|---|
France | June 13, 2022 (Annecy International Animation Film Festival, premiere) |
Canada | June 23, 2022 |
Canada | September 11, 2022 (Toronto International Film Festival) |
South Korea | October 8, 2022 (Busan International Film Festival) |
Belgium | October 16, 2022 (Film Festival Ghent) |
Canada | November 4, 2022 (Cinemania) |
Spain | November 4, 2022 (Seville European Film Festival) |
Switzerland | November 8, 2022 (Geneva International Film Festival) |
Egypt | November 19, 2022 (Cairo International Film Festival) |
France | December 13, 2022 (Les Arcs European Film Festival) |
Netherlands | January 30, 2023 (International Film Festival Rotterdam) |
Sweden | January 31, 2023 (Göteborg Film Festival) |
United Kingdom | February 8, 2023 (Leeds) |
United Kingdom | March 2, 2023 (Glasgow Film Festival) |
Ireland | March 2, 2023 (Dublin Film Festival) |
Netherlands | March 7, 2023 (CinemAsia Film Festival) |
Lithuania | March 16, 2023 (Vilnius International Film Festival) |
France | March 22, 2023 |
Netherlands | March 30, 2023 |
United Kingdom | March 31, 2023 |
Ireland | March 31, 2023 |
United States | April 14, 2023 (limited) |
Argentina | April 20, 2023 (Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema) |
China | April 20, 2023 (Beijing International Film Festival) |
Belgium | May 10, 2023 |
Australia | June 14, 2023 (Sydney Film Festival) |
Ukraine | June 17, 2023 (Mykolaichuk OPEN Audience Film Festival) |
Sweden | July 7, 2023 |
Hong Kong | July 13, 2023 |
Australia | August 7, 2023 (Melbourne International Film Festival, Victoria premiere) |
Japan | July 26, 2024 |