Hausu (1977)
Classics at the Browning
Directed by Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
With Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ohba
Not Rated, 98 minutes, Blu-ray
In Japanese with English subtitles
Constant Boty is scheduled to attend and live score!
How to describe Nobuhiko Ôbayashi's 1977 movie Hausu (translation: House)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Dario Argento? Any of the above will do for this bonkers hallucinator about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt's creaky country home, only to come face to face with evil spirits, bloodthirsty pianos, and a demonic housecat. Too absurd to be genuinely terrifying yet too nightmarish to be merely comic, Hausu is still tripping after being beamed to Earth from another planet.
Coming from Côte d'Ivoire, Constant Boty is among a select group of West African musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often contradictory elements of innovation and tradition. Boty has found his niche perfecting a fine mix of West African folkloric music, European classical, jazz, and electronic music, having recorded with artists as diverse as saxophonist Greg Osby, pianists James Weidman and Benito Gonzalez, drummers Poogie Bell and Jerome Jennings, clarinetist Oran Etkin, bassist Solomon Dorsey, and the late trombonist Calvin Jones, among others. Boty regularly performs in countries across Africa, both as a solo act and with his band, the Guru Guru Project. The group released its debut album, Guru Guru, in 2015 to critical acclaim, with a second release, Comme Ci, Comme Ça, released in 2019.
Cosponsored by the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, The Music Village and the Meg and John P. Brogan Endowment for Classic Cinema