tomoyo kawari

golden gai district in Shinjuku, photo Gustavo de Mattos Jahn The bar la jetée photographed by Nils Edström

BAR LA JETEÉ

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by ANNA DUBOSC

 

Tomoyo Kawai was a friend of my mother. In the 1960s, they worked together at the same film distribution company, the Shibata Organization. After opening her bar, Tomoyo continued to work occasionally for the company, scouting films abroad.

We saw her every year in Paris, where my mother had been living since the 1970s. Tomoyo always arrived with four Japanese friends — single, childless women who were passionate about cinema. They would come for dinner at our place on Rue Ganneron before heading down to the Cannes Film Festival. In this way, we were part of the journey of cinema, that “great democratic night,” as Marguerite Duras called it.

I loved this group of Japanese women,…