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Be that as it may, the fact is that I haven’t been inside a movie theater for almost ten years now.Not that I don’t like movies. It just so happened that I haven’t seen any. Not even on TV, on DVD, or during flights. It does seem strange even to myself, considering that I spent a lot of time in cinemas, staring at the screen and watching some film or other when I was young.

Back then, Takuma Nakahira was Godard, and I was Fellini. Either one of us would always invite the other to go and see a movie together, which we did a lot, and I have no idea what it is that has pulled me this far away from movies and theaters.

A while ago, someone asked me to name my favorite movie. I didn’t know what to say. There were of course two or three Japanese, and a couple of foreign movies that had impressed themselves on my memory, but judging by the way that question was asked, that person seemed to expect a slightly different kind of answer, so I ended up sinking into thought. What finally came to mind after an eternity and a half of pondering was David Lynch’s “Eraserhead.”

So this was the one film that summed up the entire world of cinema for me.
It was ages ago that I watched it, and I only vaguely remembered the story and a few details, but what I did remember well was that it was a “dark” one. My impression of the movie was basically that just about everything on the screen, every light and every shadow, was dark. It was so mysterious a “darkness” that it engraved itself on my entrails like an importunate stain. I don’t think I will ever watch it again.

There is absolutely no connection, however, between “Eraserhead” and the fact that I haven’t seen a single movie for years.I guess it’s just that, the older I’m getting, the more I’m taken up with roaming the streets and alleys of the city, and it’s that addiction that must be gradually extinguishing other capacities.