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In Review

Film Studies History, in Celluloid Joanne Bernardi introduces students to the delicate art of preserving films—and to the enduring appeal of “/creature” movies.

By Kathleen McGarvey

There are many iconic images of the nuclear age, but among those spawned by pop culture, perhaps none is more famil- iar than a certain enormous lizard. Atomic Creatures: , a film and media stud- ies course taught this fall by Joanne Bernar- di, an associate professor of Japanese and a MONSTER KING: Bernardi (with her own collection of memorabilia) teaches member of the film and media studies pro- a course on Japanese monster films, a that has established Godzilla (above) as a gram faculty, takes a look at the phenom- fixture in global popular culture since the postnuclear lizard’s debut in 1954.

12 ROCHESTER REVIEW November–December 2010 Getty Images (Godzilla); Adam Fenster (Bernardi)

3_RochRev_Nov10_Review.indd 12 10/29/10 11:16 AM In Review

enon that generated and helped define the doctorate in Japanese and film studies at the diversity of national film industries, Japanese eiga, or monster film. Columbia before she ever encountered the and helps students become more aware of “I think it’s the most important course I original Gojira. It played at the Public The- the breadth of film and media studies as a teach—it’s a matter of life and death,” says ater’s Summer in film series in New discipline. It also gives us an appreciation Bernardi, who says the films bring together York City in 1982. of all kinds of film—not just Hollywood fea- cultural and historical responses to nuclear “It simply wasn’t available then,” she ture films, but industrial films, films for ad- issues. The larger context of the course is a says, noting that while a restored version vertising and promotion, and government critical investigation of the science-fiction/ was released theatrically in 2004, the orig- propaganda films.” horror/creature inspired by the inal Gojira had only very limited screenings It was in part student questions that led dawn of the nuclear age. The kitschiness of in the . her to pursue the Selznick program certifi- many American posta- Seeing the 1954 movie lit Bernardi’s in- cate, she says. “They wanted to know where tomic creature movies terest in the genre and in what it reveals films come from, where they go, and why resulted in part from about the postwar period. But her chance we see some films—and not others.” limited awareness of the full encounter with the movie also height- Students are aware that such knowledge effects of nuclear weapons. ened her awareness of the precarious- is especially pertinent today, Bernardi says, Photographic footage taken immediately ness of films’ availability. Two decades with the accumulation of more than three after the explosions in later, Bernardi enrolled in a certificate decades of evolving home viewing formats, and Nagasaki weren’t seen in the program of the Jeffrey L. Selznick TV-release versions, and film prints that United States until the 1970s, Ber- School of Film Preservation have weathered the wear and tear of stor- nardi says. at the George East- age and use under unregulated, highly vari- Godzilla had his start in the movies man House Inter- able conditions. in 1954 with the original Japanese film Go- national Museum of “The titles screened in Atomic Crea- jira, directed by Ishiro Honda, sometimes Photography and Film tures: Godzilla are excellent case studies of a second-unit director for Akira Kurosawa. in Rochester. how films can be—and have been—altered More to most American audiences Drawing from her experiences in the over time both deliberately, for marketing is the 1956 remake starring , Eastman House archives—one of the four purposes, for example, and inadvertently Godzilla, King of the . major film archives in the United States, through their continu- But those making Gojira and its cultural where she was trained in restoring, preserv- ous use,” she adds. offspring weren’t only thinking of an anti- ing, and caring for films—she developed a “Students have a nuclear message, Bernardi says. They were new course for Rochester students, Film keen awareness of also trying to entertain. Even as she out- as Object. films as artifacts and not just lines the somber questions she leads her “Knowledge of film preservation as abstract, individual 'film students to discuss, she can’t help but break enables a deeper, more compre- titles' presumably passed out in a grin at the thought of a good mon- hensive understanding of film- down to us in the same ster movie. making,” she says. “It’s easier to condition in which they Bernardi was already well at work on her understand were made.”r Going to the Movies Here are a few of Joanne Bernardi’s top conflict between scien- recommendations for films that helped set tists and military men the stage for the Godzilla series: that became a staple of these films. The (1925): The adaptation of ’s 1912 The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms ANCESTORS: novel pioneered cinema special effects in its (1953): Opening with footage of the “I treat depiction of scientists in a land of prehis- Crossroads Baker atomic test shot, the and The Lost toric creatures. film—about a , thawed out by an World as films Arctic nuclear test, that makes its way to leading up to King Kong (1933): The original ape-meets- Manhattan—was an obvious precursor to Godzilla,” says girl flick was rereleased worldwide in 1952 the Godzilla story. Bernardi. and 1953, earning more revenue than in its original release and priming audiences for Them! (1954): Not all the creatures Godzilla’s debut the following year. in creature films towered over city blocks. The monsters of Them! The Thing from Another World (1951): were mutant ants, the result of An American 1950s creature film that Alamogordo atomic bomb tests. walked a thin line between the and horror , it introduced a —Kathleen McGarvey

Getty Images November–December 2010 ROCHESTER REVIEW 13

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