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Cinema: Godzilla celebrates its 70th anniversary
Cinema: Godzilla celebrates its 70th anniversary
(France 2)
Godzilla, the enormous lizard that destroys everything in its path, is celebrating its 70th birthday. For the occasion, two films pay tribute to him. But who really is Godzilla?
It is immense, formidable, and comes to us from Japan. This is Godzilla, a movie star who celebrates his 70th birthday in 2024. His very first television appearance dates back to 1954. A prehistoric creature that became monstrous following nuclear tests, for the Japanese he is the incarnation of atomic bomb. To play the beast in the first feature film which brought together nine million viewers, there are no special effects but an actor, who wears a concrete costume which weighs no less than 100 kg.
The “Kaiju Eiga”
Faced with this resounding success, Godzilla became a cinematic genre: the Kaiju Eiga. “Eiga means film, and Kaiju means ‘strange beast’ or ‘gigantic beast’, specifies Fabien Mauro, specialist in Asian cinema. Franchise Godzilla would have already brought in 6 billion euros to the studios.
