Hermes' original Birkin bag sells for $10 million at auction to a Japanese buyer
The black leather Hermes handbag made some forty years ago for the late singer and actor Jane Birkin was sold in a bidding war that lasted more than 10 minutes at Sotheby's in Paris Thursday. The buyer was a private collector from Japan, bidding via telephone, according to the auction house.
The price shattered the previous record for a handbag at auction, a rare Himalaya Kelly bag in crocodile with a diamond, also by Hermes, that sold at a Christie's sale in 2021 for $4 million Hong Kong dollars ($510,000.)
The original Birkin was commissioned in 1984 for Jane Birkin by Hermes International SCA's then Chief Executive Officer Jean-Louis Dumas. It was delivered to her a year later.
Birkin recalled in interviews how she bumped into Dumas on a flight and complained about the lack of a Hermes handbag big enough for her needs. She said she sketched a model of what she wanted on a "vomit bag' during that encounter. The following year, the brand presented her with its prototype.
The company went on to commercialize the product under her name, but the features on the original bag weren't replicated on any other Birkin bag.
Birkin sold her handbag in 1994 to raise funds for an AIDS charity. It was auctioned again in 2000, and has, until now, belonged to the collector who goes by the name "Catherine B' on Instagram.
"Today it's the most sought-after bag that everybody dreams about,' she said ahead of the auction Thursday, explaining that she kept it during the past 25 years in a safe-like location at appropriate temperatures to protect it, while occasionally taking it out for some events. The seller didn't wish to share her family name.
Hermes bags often fetch higher prices at resale than in boutiques due to long waiting lists. Sotheby's didn't release estimates for what the piece could fetch ahead of Thursday's auction.
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Japan Times
4 days ago
- Japan Times
Futuristic mermaid tale ‘ChaO' makes a splash
Unlikely romances between humans and mermaids have been the basis for several anime films, like Hayao Miyazaki's 'Ponyo' and Masaaki Yuasa's 'Lu Over the Wall.' Now, Hans Christian Andersen's 'Little Mermaid' tale gets its latest animated spin in 'ChaO,' a new film from Studio 4°C that opens in Japan Aug. 15 after premiering in June at the Annecy International Film Festival in France, where it won the Jury Award. The romantic comedy takes place in a near-future Shanghai where humans live in relative peace alongside the merpeople who populate the city's canals and surrounding seas. Its protagonist is Stephan (voiced by Ouji Suzuka), a mild-mannered engineer who works at the city's top manufacturer of maritime vessels. One day, Stephan meets a mermaid princess named Chao (Anna Yamada), who is instantly smitten with Stephan, claiming they've met before, though he has no idea what she's talking about. Sensing a public relations coup for his company (a shipbuilder married to the daughter of a mer-king!), Stephan's boss (Ryota Yamasato) pushes his young employee to marry Chao. Even though he grumbles about the need to wed 'a talking fish,' the meek Stephan nonetheless goes through with the nuptials. The unlikely pair then begin a crosscultural coupling that brings challenges as Chao navigates life above the sea and Stephan slowly unlocks the repressed memories of when he first met his bride. 'ChaO' was directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, 56, a veteran animator and director of episodes of properties like 'Batman: Gotham Knight' and 'Tweeny Witches' in his feature film debut. For 'ChaO,' which took nine years from conception to release, Aoki was tasked by Studio 4°C producer Eiko Tanaka ('Tekkon Kinkreet,' 'Children of the Sea') to create a 'totally new' original anime film. Aoki tells The Japan Times that part of achieving that remit came in imbuing the film with a high level of visual density. Each frame is packed from corner to corner with intricate backgrounds, characters and objects with multiple blink-and-you'll-miss-it sight gags made to reward repeat viewings. Zooming out to allow for that kind of extra visual information was one of Aoki's primary goals. 'In a live-action film, you can have actors here and there across the frame doing all kinds of things, whereas anime tends to focus the camera only on what's essential to move the plot forward, on the character who's speaking, for example,' Aoki says. 'I wanted to avoid that tendency.' Proof of the film's visual spectacle is the number of frames drawn by its animators. The average anime film is said to be made up of about 30,000 to 40,000 hand-drawn frames, but 'ChaO' has over 100,000. 'That was many more frames than we anticipated,' says Aoki with a laugh. 'The truth is, with all the detail I was trying to pack in, the animators and I got excited about what we were trying to do, and we somehow ended up with over 100,000.' As the credits roll, the film gives the audience a peek behind the scenes and pays tribute to the hard work of those animators by showing how some key shots looked before they were colored and composited. 'We're entering an era where things like CG and AI are on their way in and hand-drawn animation is on its way out,' says Aoki. 'Since we're on the precipice of that change in eras, the ending sequence functions as proof that our film is drawn by hand. Ultimately, I think what humans like best is art made by other humans. AI may be gaining attention, but I think we want to watch things made by people.' Veteran animator and director Yasuhiro Aoki (center) premiered his film 'ChaO' in June at the Annecy International Film Festival in France, where it won the Jury Award. | Studio 4°C Speaking of people, another element that brings the vibrant look of 'ChaO' to life are its various characters. Created by the director and refined by character designer Hirokazu Kojima, each of the film's characters look totally different from each other but all share a sketchy, cartoony fluidity as they careen across the screen. 'I started my career in anime about 30 years ago, when the industry was starting to concentrate on anime with a lot of realism to appeal to adults,' says Aoki. 'I've done a lot of realist animation and enjoy drawing it, but for 'ChaO,' I wanted to try something you couldn't do in live-action filmmaking, something that might give live-action filmmakers a pang of jealousy. That's why the film has characters of all shapes and sizes: round, thin, tiny, large. Animation offers total freedom, after all.' Not only do the film's distinctive characters give it visual appeal, they also help fill out its expansive, zoomed-out worldview. Aoki and his team spent a lot of time making sure that even minor characters, from Stephan's inventor roommate Roberta (Yuichiro Umehara) to Chao's guide to the human world Maibei (Kavka Shishido), would be memorable even with limited screen time. 'Stephan and Chao are the main characters, so naturally we spend the most time with them,' explains Aoki. 'At the same time, Stephan is the most straightlaced, normal one among them. In contrast, we gave the minor characters enough zest to make the audience think they could be main characters in their own right. In that way, they end up leaving a lasting impression. We created all the characters to be loved even if they only appear briefly. I wanted audiences to wonder about what those characters were doing even when they weren't on screen.' Studio 4°C tasked Aoki with creating a 'totally new' original anime film, which meant imbuing 'ChaO' with a high level of visual density. | © 2025 'ChaO' Committee Another of the film's unique elements is its setting, Shanghai, a place not often seen in Japanese animation. The choice was partially inspired by China's explosive economic growth at the time the project was first conceived. 'When we visited, it felt very futuristic, but there was a lot of 'old China' left too,' says the director. 'That contrast was interesting, as was the speed of modernization. It had an atmosphere I had never felt in Japan, even though they're both Asian countries, so that made it a very interesting place for the setting of our film.' In recent years, anime has dominated the Japanese box office, and 2025 is no exception. But while franchise-based properties like 'Demon Slayer' and 'Detective Conan' are surefire hits, anime films based on original screenplays like 'ChaO' aren't guaranteed to make the same splash. Still, Aoki tried not to worry too much about box-office considerations while making his film. 'Filmmaking is a business, and everyone wants a hit, but I think every creator wants to try their hand at an original at least once,' Aoki says. 'I also think that viewers want to find something they can call their own. I have a feeling that more than big franchise hits, originals are the films that really live on in people's hearts.' 'ChaO' opens in cinemas nationwide from Aug. 15. For more information, visit (Japanese only).
Japan Times
01-08-2025
- Japan Times
Voice actors push back as AI threatens dubbing industry
Boris Rehlinger may not turn heads on the streets of Paris, but his voice is instantly recognizable to millions of French filmgoers. As the French voice of Ben Affleck, Joaquin Phoenix, and even Puss in Boots, Rehlinger is a star behind the scenes — and now he is fighting to keep his craft alive in the age of AI. "I feel threatened even though my voice hasn't been replaced by AI yet," said the actor, who is part of a French initiative, TouchePasMaVF, to protect human-created dubbing from artificial intelligence. He said there was a team of professionals, including actors, translators, production directors, dialog adapters and sound engineers, to ensure audiences barely notice that the actor on screen is speaking a different language than they hear. The rise of global streaming platforms such as Netflix, which relies heavily on dubbing to make global hits such as "Squid Game" and "Lupin," has amplified demand. Consumer research firm GWI says 43% of viewers in Germany, France, Italy and Britain prefer dubbed content over subtitles. The market is expected to grow to $4.3 billion in 2025, reaching $7.6 billion by 2033, according to Business Research Insights. That growth could also amplify demand for the so-far nascent technology-based solutions, with platforms competing for subscribers and revenue, and seeking to win over advertisers from their rivals by emphasising their increasing reach. But as AI-generated voices become more sophisticated and cost-effective, voice actor industry associations across Europe are calling on the EU to tighten regulations to protect quality, jobs and artists' back catalogs from being used to create future dubbed work. "We need legislation," Rehlinger said. Just as after the car, which replaced the horse-drawn carriage, we need a highway code." A sound engineer in a dubbing studio in Munich | REUTERS Worries over technology in the movie industry and whether it will replace the work of humans are not new. AI has been a flashpoint in Hollywood since the labor unrest of 2023, which resulted in new guidelines for the use of the technology. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said this month that the company used generative AI to produce visual effects for the first time on screen in the original series "The Eternaut." It has also tested generative AI to synchronize actors' lip movements with dubbed dialogue to improve the viewing experience, according to three sources familiar with the work. These experiments rely on local voice actors to deliver the lines, rather than use AI to synthetically translate the on-screen performer's voice into another language. Such use of AI for dubbing is permitted under the new SAG-AFTRA actors' union contract, which covers voiceover dubbing from foreign languages into English. It also requires that the actor rendering the dubbing service be paid. Netflix declined to comment on its use of AI in dubbing. Intellectual property Such test runs by an industry giant will do little to allay the fears of dubbing actors. In Germany, 12 well-known voice actors went viral on TikTok in March, garnering 8.7 million views, for their campaign saying "Let's protect artistic, not artificial, intelligence". A petition from the VDS voice actors' association calling on German and EU lawmakers to push AI companies to obtain explicit consent when training the technology on artists' voices and fairly compensate them, as well as transparently label AI-generated content, gained more than 75,500 signatures. When intellectual property is no longer protected, no one will produce anything anymore "because they think 'tomorrow it will be stolen from me anyway'," said Cedric Cavatore, a VDS member who has dubbed films and video games including the PlayStation game "Final Fantasy VII Remake." VDS collaborates with United Voice Artists, a global network of over 20,000 voice actors advocating for ethical AI use and fair contracts. In the United States, Hollywood video game voice and motion capture actors this month signed a new contract with video game studios focused on AI that SAG-AFTRA said represented important progress on protections against the tech. Studios experiment Some studios are already cautiously exploring AI. Eberhard Weckerle, managing director of the Neue Tonfilm Muenchen studio, hopes AI and human dubbing can one day coexist. "The fear is that AI will be used to make something as cheap as possible and then people will say, 'Okay, I'll accept that I'll have poorer quality.' And that would actually be the worst thing that could happen to us," said the sound engineer whose studio worked on the German version of "Conclave" and is currently dubbing Guy Ritchie's new film. A synchronous speaker stands in a dubbing studio in Munich. | REUTERS Earlier this year, the German-dubbed version of streaming service Viaplay's Polish crime series "Murderesses" was removed after criticism from viewers about the monotony of its AI-generated dialog. The streamer had decided to look into alternative dubbing options due to how prohibitively expensive going through the traditional channels can be in Germany. The hybrid dubbing, created with Israeli startup DeepDub, used a mix of human and AI voices. DeepDub did not respond to an emailed request for comment. "We'll continue offering subtitles and reserve dubbing for select content," said Vanda Rapti, the executive vice president of ViaPlay Group, ViaPlay Select & Content distribution. Despite the disquiet over that series, other potential viewers seem more sanguine. According to GWI, nearly half of viewers said their opinion would not change if they learned that the content they liked was generated by AI. Some 25% said they would like it slightly less, and only 3% said they would like it much more. 'Interest is huge' Stefan Sporn, CEO of Audio Innovation Lab, which used AI to dub the Cannes Film Festival entry "Black Dog" from Chinese to German, believes AI will reshape, but not replace, voice work. Humans will always be needed for emotion, scripting, and language nuance, he said, "just not to the same extent". Audio Innovation Lab's technology alters the original actor's voice to match the target language, aiming for authenticity and efficiency. "Interest is huge," said Sporn, adding that producers, studios and advertisers all want to know how well it works. Another startup, Flawless AI, bills itself as an ethical AI company that works with local voice actors and uses its technology to match the on-screen actor's lip movements to the different languages. "When AI technologies are used in the right way, they are a silver bullet to change how we can film-make in a new way," co-CEO Scott Mann said.
Japan Times
18-07-2025
- Japan Times
The self as a muse: Leonard Foujita's world in paintings and photos
There's reality and then there's the packaging of reality, a fact proven repeatedly by the life and work of Tsuguharu 'Leonard' Foujita (1886-1968). The Japanese-turned-French artist spent his career traveling the globe, creating works that would endear him to the School of Paris at one extreme and brand him a warmonger at the other. He produced paintings — most famously of white women and tabby cats — while cycling through wives, national allegiances and artistic styles as tax collectors and geopolitical events nipped at his heels. Amid the upheaval, Foujita tirelessly pursued the art of self-invention and reinvention. How did he manage to brand his captivating self image? The exhibition 'Foujita: Painting and Photography' reveals that he had one of modernity's most useful tools at his disposal: the camera. In what's being billed as the first exploration of the artist as a photographer, the show — a decade in the making — presents hundreds of Foujita's paintings and photographs on loan from more than 40 museums and collections.
