Japanese film-maker Takeshi given top French award
Japanese film-maker and TV personality Takeshi Kitano has been awarded the top French cultural honour. Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand presented him with the medals of the commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in Paris on Tuesday evening.
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The award ceremony took place at the Fondation Cartier modern art gallery, where an exhibition of paintings and art works by Kitano is being held.
Paris’s most prestigious modern art museum, the Pompidou Centre, has organised a retrospective of his work in film and TV, which celebrates him as “the iconoclast, film-maker and actor”.
Takeshi is often referred to by his nickname, Beat Takeshi. His films, whose subjects range from gangsters to sex comedy, include Violent Cop, Boiling Point and Getting Any?.
He has also written poetry and designed video games but is best known in Japan as a TV show host and comedian.
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