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Aspects of Japanese Cinema - the Directorspective: Akira Kurosawa
3 - 19 December, 2010
Barbican Cinema
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Seven Samurai 1954. Image: Toho Company |
Akira Kurosawa (23 March 1910 - 6 September 1998) was and remains one of the most influential figures in the history of world cinema. As director, screenwriter, producer and editor, he had a unique ability to marry sound, image and idea. He's best known in the West as a director of epic costume movies, but his work transcends time and culture in its sensitive exploration of human frailty. He originally intended a career as a painter: his diversion into film let him paint with light and movement, and his frames are so beautifully composed that other directors have been plundering shots and plots from him for years. The Magnificent Seven was lifted directly from Seven Samurai, while The Hidden Fortress inspired the original Star Wars trilogy. |
One aspect of Kurosawa's work that deserves close attention is how brilliantly he uses costume, both as a signifier of character and to build mood. In the magnificent Throne of Blood, the rustle of silk in a dark corridor becomes a reptilian threat, and the rattle of arrows on armour is the death-rattle of Toshiro Mifune's ambitious warlord. In Drunken Angel, modern dress is deployed with the same assurance and artistry to show the waves of change sweeping postwar Japan. In many of his works, like The Hidden Fortress, Kagemusha and Rashomon, dress is a form of deception, concealing the true self.
Kurosawa's long collaboration with Toshiro Mifune drew the best from both, but he worked with many remarkable actors. Isuzu Yamada is unforgettable in Throne of Blood and Tatsuya Nakadai gives a heartrending double performance as the thief and the warlord he impersonates in Kagemusha. As the director remarked, 'An action film is often an action film only for the sake of action. But what a wonderful thing if one can construct a grand action film without sacrificing the portrayal of human beings.'
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Rashomon 1950 |
Helen McCarthy
Internationally known writer on Japanese animation and comics,
designer, poet and season curator |
Fri 3 Dec, 6pm
Introduced by Helen McCarthy.
Throne Of Blood (Kumonosu jo) 12A
Japan 1957 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 109 min.
Fri 3 Dec, 8.45pm
Rashomon 12A
Japan 1950 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 87 min.
Wed 8 Dec, 6pm
Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi) PG
Japan 1948 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 98 min.
Wed 8 Dec, 8.30pm
The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-toride no san-akunin) PG
Japan 1958 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 139 min
Thu 9 Dec , 7pm
Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior) PG
Japan 1980 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 181 min.
Sun 19 Dec , 2.30pm
Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) PG
Japan 1954 Dir. Akira Kurosawa 198 min.
For more details, see http://www.barbican.org.uk/film/series.asp?id=902
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