There is no question that Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet (2026) is as beautiful as it is sentimental, which poses a query as to the association between beauty and sentiment. At a 1998 symposium entitled “Beauty: A Conference in the Healing Arts” sponsored by the Pacifica Graduate Institute, panelists James Hillman, Ursula K. LeGuin, Ciel Bergman (née Cheryl Bowers), Suzi Gablik and Julian White circumambulated that query.
American painter Ciel Bergman outlined her approach to beauty as rooted in a post-modern, environmentally conscious, and deeply subjective framework that moved away from traditional irony (i.e., Warhol’s soup cans) toward an emotional, and symbolic reclamation of beauty. The basic premises of her attachment of sentimentality to beauty included what she termed “objectifying the subjective”, reclaiming beauty as meaningful and transcendent, engaging in passionate “environmental affinities”, and using a symbolic visual language intended to convey deep feeling. In essence, Bergman did not view beauty as mere decoration, but as a "passionate" tool to (re)connect with the world, nature, and the human spirit.
Julian White described sentimentality as the frontage road to the highway of true emotion: both going in the same frenzied direction. Ursula LeGuin defined sentimentality as the obverse of cynicism. In notable contrast to Bergman, James Hillman viewed beauty not as a sentimental, subjective emotion, but as an inherent, objective, and cosmological force. He argued that true beauty is often mistaken for, or reduced to, mere "prettiness" or sentimentality. Instead, Hillman proposed beauty is a "visceral" aesthetic response that grabs us, commanding attention, and connecting the individual soul to the world.
Which brings us to Scarlet. In his director’s statement Hosoda explains earnestly: “As we witness heartbreaking conflicts around the world, I believe that finding love and choosing to live together in unity is what will lead us towards something better. That’s why I want to share this new film with the world—now more than ever.” Using anime as his “passionate” tool “to (re)connect with the world, nature, and the human spirit”, Hosoda’s pitched sentiments come off as an overtly nostalgic response to a fractured, modern world. The balance between the sentimentality of his themes and the beauty of his animation is off just enough as to cheapen the sentiment and demean the beauty, which is unfortunate because the animation—especially in its landscapes—is epic in scale (if David Lean made anime….) and—in an evident citation to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey—I’m sure Scarlet will be a thrill ride on IMAX as the titular character springboards from death through time into a three-dimensional Otherworld where the photorealism of Hosoda’s animation seems an impressive simulation of beauty more than the cosmologically forceful beauty defined by Hillman.
Scarlet opens on Bay Area IMAX screens February 6, notably in San Francisco at the AMC Metreon 16 and the Apple Cinemas Van Ness IMAX. In Boise, Idaho, Scarlet opens on February 6 at the Regal Edwards IMAX.
