5th annual Rome Film Festival to present Studio Ghibli retrospective

by Chris MaGee

It's no secret that we at the Pow-Wow are big fans of Hayao MIyazaki and his fellow directors and animators at Studio Ghibli. How they can consistently release films that combine stunning artistry with blockbuster public appeal (Ghibli's latest film "Karigurashi no Arrietty" recently set a record for the number of tickets sold for a debut filmmaker in Japan - 7.5 million since July) is always surprising, but is never a surprise, if that logic makes sense. Now Tokyograph is reporting that the films of Studio Ghibli will be getting the retrospective treatment in Rome.

The 5th annual Rome Film Festival have assembled a retrospective of nearly a dozen films by Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Yoshifumi Kondo and "Arrietty" director Hiromasa Yonebayashi that will run in the Italian capital between October 28th and November 5th. Amongst the programme will be "Princess Mononoke", "Only Yesterday", "Whisper of the Heart" and of course "Karigurashi no Arrietty" (above), plus programmers have slotted in two Ghibli documentaries - "Yasuo Otsuka's Joy in Motion" and "Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli Museum". If you're in the Rome area at the end of this month you will definitely not want to miss this.

Now, what better opportunity to post a trailer for one of our favorite Ghibli films, Hayao Miyazaki's 1984 film "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" - which will also be screening at the Rome Film Festival.