Criterion’s Three Reasons for Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring
Available April 17th, pre-order the Blu-ray
Source: criterioncast
Kagemusha // dir. Akira Kurosawa
Over time, the images for Kagemusha grew more complex—and darker. The original fable about a great warlord impersonated by a boorish ruffian gradually took on epic proportions as an allegory about human folly and ambition. The paintings that had begun as simple sketches came to be populated with huge armies of foot soldiers surging into battle against cavalries of mounted warriors and phalanxes of riflemen. As Kurosawa’s spirits darkened with the passage of time and his increasing doubts that the film would ever get made, so too did his palette, and the psychological attributes of his characters.
In Kagemusha, the energy of a passionate young artist and the genius of a mature master seem to reunite. The film is as much the triumph of the painter that Kurosawa had been as a youth as of the masterful playwright he had become. It also marks the beginning of the final chapter of his astonishing career as a director. Ran, Dreams, and the other works of his late years benefit from the intensely painterly approach to filmmaking he adopted in his long, painstaking preparations for Kagemusha.
Peter Grilli — Kagemusha: From Painting to Film Pageantry [x]
Source: strangewood
International Poster Tour: RASHOMON (dir. Akira Kurosawa) 1950
oh, you say the poster had a toothy mouth in the middle? that’s not the way i remember it.
(nicely done, Strangewood)
Source: strangewood
The Most Beautiful // dir. Akira Kurosawa
On wartime censorship: The censors were so far gone as to find the following sentence obscene: “The factory gate waited for the student workers, thrown open in longing.” What can I say? This obscenity verdict was handed down by a censor in response to my script for my 1944 film about a girls’ volunteer corps, The Most Beautiful. I could not fathom what it was he found to be obscene about this sentence. Probably none of you can either. But for the mentally disturbed censor this sentence was unquestionably obscene. He explained that the word “gate” very vividly suggested to him the vagina! For these people suffering from sexual manias, anything and everything made them feel carnal desires. Because they were obscene themselves, everything seen through their obscene eyes naturally became obscene. Nothing more or less than a case of sexual pathology.
Akira Kurosawa: Something Like an Autobiography
Source: strangewood
From Guy Maddin’s SPIRITISMES. Adèle Haenel in “Resurrection of Love.” Lost Kenji Mizoguchi (Japan, 1923). Photo by Cecile Grâce Janvier.
Source: sunsetgun
From Guy Maddin’s SPIRITISMES. Udo Kier in “Resurrection of Love.” Lost Kenji Mizoguchi (Japan, 1923). Photo by Kim Morgan.
Source: sunsetgun
From Guy Maddin’s SPIRITISMES. Udo Kier in “The Strength of a Moustache.” Lost Mikio Naruse (Japan, 1931). Photo by Cecile Grâce Janvier.
Source: sunsetgun
