|
The
Schedule
FRIDAY,
MARCH 21
CINEMA WITHOUT REGRETS: FROM LIFE DURING WARTIME TO STUDENT REVOLT
Kurosawa got
his start in less-than-ideal circumstances, directing his first handful
of films in the midst of World War II. Demanding uplifting stories and
moral certitude from the young director, Kurosawa had to slip his signature
touches under the door when possible. These films, already full of maturity
and style, paint a picture of the master director working with one (figurative)
arm tied behind his back.
7:00
p.m.
SANSHIRO SUGATA
(Judo Story)
Mating his
love of physical rigor (martial arts, Noh theater, etc.) with the studio's
love of no-controvery period films about the strong Japanese character
(again, this is wartime), Kurosawa shot to look like it actually was
recording the historical moment - 1863, the birth of Judo in a world
dominated by Ju-Jitsu, with a studied, grainy priveval feeling to the
whole thing. Spills! Tumbles! Bad subtitling! Because this is a Chinese
bootleg! (this will be a recurring motif for a little while, so hang
in there, and snicker only if you must)
8:45
p.m.
 MOST
BEAUTIFUL
VERY wartime
propaganda. Kurosawa wanted to shoot a fictional movie in the style
of a documentary, and used lots of real wartime (female) volunteers
in a munitions factory for the parts to give it newsreel realism. As
above, the studio wanted a film that displayed to the filmgoing public
the righteousness of "the struggle" and a strong Japanese
character. Should still be interest, if only for the first major appearance
of Kurosawa uber-regular Takashi Shimura (he was in more of Kurosawa's
films than even Toshiro Mifune!).
10:20
p.m.
SANSHIRO SUGATA II
Then, as now,
film studios know how to millk a cash cow. With the sucess of the original
Sanshiro Sugata, Kurosawa was strong-armed into filming a sequel.
It contains amusing and broad American stereotypes (not to beat a dead
horse, but, yeah - wartime, national character, enemy, blah blah), and
a rather memorable fight on a snowy field. Y'know, everybody's going
to be here to watch Seven Samurai, but as any Stiff-leg lifer
will tell you, watching such non-canonic material is really going to
put the later films into a deeper perspective, dont'cha think? Or, maybe
it'll be like every other year, and I'll be hanging out all alone until
the midget movie or M*A*S*H comes on. Sigh.
11:50
p.m.
THEY WHO TREAD
ON THE TIGER'S TAIL
One of the few
short-ish films on the docket (an hour and seven from tips to tails),
this is an adaptation of a story that would be familiar to most Japanese
filmgoers, as it combines aspects of a common Kabuki fable (with elements
of a less-popular Noh storyline), but with a twist. It's the fable of
a warlord who flees from his brother/rival and takes to dressing his
party as monks to avoid notice. Soon, the party begins to adopt monkish
behavior and beliefs. There's a common theme of a servant that must
dress as the master (and vice-versa), but the inclusion of a second
servant, played by then-popular comedic actor Enoken, adds bizarre comedy
to an otherwise contemplative morality fable. As Kurosawa scholar Donald
Richie put it, it would be "like adding Jerry Lewis the cast of
Hamlet." Check out that still below...this is going to be
high-larrrrrr-ious! Or, at the very least, mercifully short.
From
imdb.com reviewer "cheese cake": The movie is seemingly
based on an event from Japan's past, but it is really Kurosawa's allegory
on Japan's condition at the end of World War Two. A prince, estranged
from his brother, and six of his loyal retainers wander through the
forest. They all look disheveled and hard up. They must cross a barrier
manned by officials who are not exactly friendly to them, before they
can move on to improving their life. The prince is disguised as a lowly
porter and we rarely see his face. his retainers are warriors but are
now forced to don monk's robes and indeed in passing through the barrier
manned by the unfriendly forces (read American's) the lead monk must
read a treatise in which peace is extolled as the reason for their existence.
basically, the monks are Japanese elite, the porter is the Japanese
public, the prince is the emperor, the barrier officials are the Americans,
whose leader is wise and although he knows the truth allows the monks
to live. They are many truths within truths here. Indeed, in the end
the adviser to the emperor says, "we must move on (read from the feudal
system) if we are to survive". a very fine movie, short yet poignant.
one can easily see even in this early feature of his that Kurosawa is
a master at symbolic imagery. By the way this movie was made in 1945,
but not released in Japan until 1952. After watching it, I can see why
it was delayed. It would have been extremely painful as a Japanese citizen
to watch this in 1945, with their country in shambles around them. highly
recommended.
1:00
a.m.
 NO
REGRETS FOR OUR YOUTH
Kurosawa, notorious
as a director of primarily manly characters with manly traits and manly
swords (or, in the case of his "kindly country doctor" films,
manly stethescopes), here shoots a film with a female protagonist. Guess
that makes this his Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore? Maybe. The
female lead, Setsuko Hara, plays Yukie, a studen born of upper-class
parents who discovers that her father, a professor, is a closet radical,
and her lover has been tried as a spy. It was watching a few minutes
of my booted copy of this film that caused me to break down and shell
out for the Postwar Kurosawa box set, as the subtitles were,
how shall we put it, high-larrrrr-ious! And I don't think that this
story was supposed to be a surrealist's dream come true or anything.
As a result, Criterion got 52 more dollars of my paycheck. (p.s. for
those of you checking out the Stiff-Leg shenanigans for the first time,
yes, this ends late, and yes, tomorrow's films start early. That's what
it's all about. Pretend you're in college again - you used to live on
no sleep like this all the time.).
SATURDAY,
MARCH 22
THE BOMB, DIMITRI - POST-WAR JAPAN AND THE FOUR-SIDED
TRUTH
It's 1946...do
you know where your ruined cities are? Kurosawa continues to grow in
ability and stature within the Japanese studio system, creating terse
and engaging film vechicles, many of which offer a sly, sideways glance
into a culture completely horrified by the sight of one-button armageddon
that has been loosed upon them. From police procedurals to sunny Sundays
in the park, many of these films show Japan in a petrified state - rebuilding
not just cities, but the national psyche. Kurosawa's stories are varied,
but his themes always remain - why can we not be happier in our day-to-day
lives, and why must it take the threat of catastrophe to wake some people
up to their own lives? Also, we're going to watch friggin' Rashomon,
and you know you gotta see that! Also, Ikiru looks like it's
going to change lives forever. You know what else? Raffle prizes!!
10:00
a.m.
 ONE
WONDERFUL SUNDAY
It's a beautiful
Sunday afternoon, and a young couple decide that they're going to go
out for a nice afternoon together with only 35 yen in their pocket (that's
barely a handful of pocket-change, no matter what era you were born
in). As their plans get increasingly thwarted, he turns to despair,
while she sees optimistic moments in all things. Many surprising shots
of post-war Japanland in bad decline, there is a lot of sociological
undercurrent to be seen here in between shots of Life Is Beautiful-esque
hamming (i.e. the "invisible symphony" scene).
11:55
a.m.
DRUNKEN ANGEL
TOSHIRO MIFUNE
DEBUT IN A KUROSAWA FILM ALERT!! There, that got your attention. A doctor
takes in a young hoodlum with TB (Mifune) who subsequently threatens
his life. Then there's some altercation with the hoodlum/ganger's mob
boss, and it puts the kindly doctor at risk. Generally considered to
be Kurosawa's first truly distinct film, i.e. finally freed from wartime
constraints and excessive content restrictions. (come back on Sunday
the 30th for two documentaries on Drunken Angel, including one
on Kurosawa's battles with the censors!)
1:40
p.m.
THE QUIET DUEL
This time, the
shoe's on the other foot. Mifune plays the earnest young doctor, rather
than the tubercular street-tough (hmm...as it turns out, I've been waiting
my whole life to use the phrase 'tubercular street-tough.' I feel...strangly
satisfied). This time, the doctor becomes infected with syphillis while
treating a war-time patient, and comes home unable to be with the woman
who has saved herself for him (and vice-versa) all this time. Kind of
soapy, but carried off by the weight of Mifune's performance and the
engaging personalities of the various patients. Not major, but far from
inconsequential.
3:245
p.m.
 STRAY
DOG
Generally thought
of as the best of the pre-Rashomon period. A young policeman's
pistol is stolen on the hottest day of summer. In a time and place where
few people, either cops or civilians, have guns, this is a pretty big
deal. Officer Butterfingers tracks the thief into the worst slums of
the city for a dose of "how the other half lives." A kindly
older detective (Shimura again) gives him some excellent lessons as
they make their way through the city's underbelly. A great one to show
off Kurosawa's facility for works other than samurai adaptations of
Shakespeare plays. Also, one of the best uses of scorching summer heat
as a central character in the drama until Do the Right Thing.
5:35
p.m.
SCANDAL
A famous young
painter (yes, Mifune again) spends a non-lascivious night with an up-and-coming
musician, but the scandal rags say they saw something. It's all right
there in the title: SCANDAL! Kurosawa's critique of the life-wrecking
power of the sensationalists seems precient to this very day (though
really, who in this era would be eagerly watching the comings and goings
of a painter? For that matter, how many famous painters are there,
anyway?!).
7:30
p.m.
RASHOMON
I can't IMAGINE
that I have to explain this one to you. Even if you haven't seen it,
you probably understand the idiomatic phrase associated with the title
of this movie (and the book it's based on), just as certainly as you
know what a "Catch 22" is even if you haven't read Heller.
Rashomon is one story, told from four different perspectives.
All of them different. All of them wrong. All of them right.
"Human beings
are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot
talk about themselves without embellishing."
- Akira Kurosawa
9:05
p.m.
THE IDIOT
Yes, as in the
Dostoyevsky novel. Turns out, one of Kurosawa's favorite authors was
Dostoyevsky, and he forever dreamed of bringing this story to the screen.
Unfortunately, not wishing to either strictly film it as a Russian tale,
nor to thoroughly "Asianize" the themes, he sets the film
in the snowy mountain city of Hokkaido, considered the most "Western"
of Japanese cities, unable to commit to a unique viewpoint. Apart from
the beautiful winterscapes, it's apparently a lot of talking heads back
and forth. And, uh, yeah, nearly three hours long. Not one of Kurosawa's
finest moments...or is it? You won't know what you missed if you miss
it!
12:00
a.m.
IKIRU
It'll be worth
wading through The Idiot to get to this one, though....THIS,
my friends, will be the life changer of the night, if not the whole
WEEKEND. A man who lived his life as a know-nothing, say-nothing, bureaucratic
paper-pusher finds out that he has abdominal cancer, and less than six
months to live. When he looks back on his life, he sees...nothing. When
he tries to have fun (wine, women, song, the lot of 'em), he finds that....he
doesn't really enjoy fun! But, at the same time, he CAN'T DIE YET. So...what
to do? How to leave a mark on life when you've spent your life as a
ghost? Likely the best of Takashi Shimura's roles with Kurosawa - check
out how he looks so withered and beaten here, but so weathered and RUGGED
in Seven Samurai. Talk about range! Roger Ebert said of this
film, "I think this is one of the few movies that might actually
be able to inspire someone to lead their life a little differently."
You ready for that?
SUNDAY,
MARCH 23
THE PEAK
It's hard to
look at today's schedule and not think of this as the peak day of the
festival. From Seven Samurai to The Hidden Fortress, Kurosawa seemed
unable to lose, creating one masterpiece after another, and earning
the Japanese film industry a ton of money. Many of these films forever
altered the way Japanese directors created period dramas, and of course,
Seven Samurai pretty much redefined the Western film genre.
12:30
p.m.
SEVEN SAMURAI
This is it,
kids. The one you've all been waiting for. The three-and-a-half-hour
epic-to-end-all-epics! Inspiration for The Magnificent Seven.
Influence to every action filmmaker from here to eternity. Battle sequences
for miles, emotional depth, innovation in every aspect of film-making.
This is a cinematic MONSTER, one of the films for all times, and yet...not
dry! Still THOROUGHLY ENTERTAINING. I've got the totally souped-up Criterion
re-re-mastered version, so it'll look stunning too - you've never seen
this film looking this good.
4:10
p.m.
 RECORD
OF A LIVING BEING (aka I LIVE IN FEAR)
 First
in Kurosawa's "Old Man Fears the A-Bomb" film series (see
also: Rhapsody in August, Madadayo). An elder business
owner, in fear of the threat of nuclear annihilation, tries to move
his family to South America. The family, more concerned about how to
keep hold of the family riches, try to get the doctors to declare him
insane, and therefore forfeit to his own businesses. Oh, but is he really
insane? IS HE? Find out and see! (They won't be scoffing when The
Day After comes out!)
6:00
p.m.
THRONE OF BLOOD
This was my
first introduction to Kurosawa....I saw this at the Valley Film Society
in Saginaw, MI back around 1993. It blew me away then, and I can't wait
to revisit it within the canon! Kurosawa's MacBeth, with Mifune
again playing the lead role to the hilt. Note the pic below...all the
arrows about to pierce Mifune's fragile armor. Lest you wonder how this
effect was done so effectively, I can tell you that those arrows were
ACTUALLY BEING SHOT AT MIFUNE, and the ones that pierce his armor actually
hit him (he had wooden blocks attached underneath for protection, but
still!). Kurosawa hired a legion of marksmen to FIRE ARROWS AT HIS LEAD
ACTOR. When Mifune was later asked how he was able to portray such vivid
terror during this scene, he replied, "It was not hard...THEY WERE
FIRING REAL ARROWS AT ME. THAT WAS REAL TERROR YOU WERE SEEING."
Anyway, yeah, it's MacBeth, done all Noh-style, with a ghoulish
Lady MacBeth and a landscape full of misty, steaming woodlands causing
panic around the mysterious Spiderweb Castle.
7:50
p.m.
THE LOWER DEPTHS
More fun in
the Western world. Kurosawa adapts a play
by Maxim Gorky
from the 1800s into a film. Thing is, this very play was made into a
movie by Jean Renoir back in the 1930s! The Criterion DVD has both versions
(viewings of the Renoir film are available by appointment...call ahead
for reservations), but we're just watching the Kurosawa one. The story
concerns the trials and tribulations of the lowest classes - the slum
dwellers. Renoir's version was played for laughs (considering the time
period in wihcih it was filmed, that was the only way it could get made),
while Kurosawa pulls out all the stops and lays down a vivid depiction
of squalor that really works the grit into the corners of the room.
It's a bit soapy and maudlin, but well worth your time.
10:00
p.m.
THE
HIDDEN FORTRESS
Blah blah, inspiration
for Star Wars, blah blah. It's much more than that, though. Along
with Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Ikiru,
this is yet another of Kurosawa's all-time classic films (you picked
a good day to come, dude!). A princess, pursued by assassins, travels
across enemy lines to get to safety, along with her general, and two
wise-cracking peasants (supposedly the inspirations for R2D2 and C-3PO).
In doing so, she must dress like a lower-class person and, yes, see
how the other half lives. Another film in which Kurosawa's pure love
of cinematic exploration is on vivid display. All the "Young Lions"
of '70s American cinema watched films like this and Yojimbo and
Seven Samurai to death, trying to replicate the new cinematic
landscape on the other side of the culture wall. See it here first.
And then, go home and get up for work tomorrow. If possible, try to
get some rest this week, because it all continues on Friday!!
FRIDAY,
MARCH 28
THE AWESOME SLEEP EVEN BETTER
Four rock-solid
films in a row - the legendary pair of films starring Toshiro Mifune
in possibly his most iconic role - the inventive, wandering ronin
named Sanjuro - bookended by two of Kurosawa's very best police procedurals,
also starring Mifune, and bolstered by the words and ideas of two monsters
of Western lit - Shakespeare and Ed McBain. Four films, many swords,
a few pistols (one in a film you wouldn't expect), humor, gore, women's
footwear, and corporate scandal!
7:00
p.m.
THE BAD SLEEP WELL
 Another
police procedural, this one based loosely after Hamlet, with
Mifune playing a young man entering the corrupt worlds of big business
to investigate the suicide of his father. Full of moral ambiguities,
mind-blowing revelations, and ferocious, uh, well not action, but ferocious
FOLLOWING PEOPLE AROUND. Pretty damn good, you should come out for this
one, and stay the night!
9:40
p.m.
YOJIMBO
 One
of those ones that you've probably see if you've seen any Kurosawa.
This film was later remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars
(and again by Jack Hill as Last Man Standing), though they all
take their original cues from Dashiell Hammett's legendary detective
novel Red Harvest (also the inspiration for the Coens' Miller's
Crossing!). This one is set in the end of the feudal period of Japan.
Its protagonist (Mifune in one of his most iconic roles) is a scruffy,
opportunistic ronin (masterless samurai) with no name (the name
he gives literally means "Mulberry Bush" i.e. it's made-up).
Like Eastwood's Man With No Name, Sanjuro plays two warring criminal
gangs against each other, pretending to ally with one, and then the
other, all the while getting paid by both. As the picture above indicates,
the appearance of a pistol on the landscape (in an era formerly dominated
by the rule "the best swordsman wins") indicates that change
is coming. Weird humor, gallons of gore, and a jazzy soundtrack are
unexpected touches as well. This film became an overnight box-office
smash, and established a precedent for ultra-violent cagey-samurai films
for decades to come.
11:35
p.m.
SANJURO
 As
is the case with most box-office smashes, the studio immediately wanted
a sequel, and as he did with Sanshiro Sugata II, Kurosawa again
complied, though this time with much better results. Playing the slouchy,
rumpled Sanjuro more for laughs this time, he assists a group of nine
wannabe warriors who hire him to help them learn the Way of the Samurai.
Again, there's a lot of violence, though the gore is less played up
than in the previous installment. The nine students are especially amusing,
mimicing each other's mannerisms and movements to an absurd degree.
As they follow in a row behind Sanjuro, he finally snaps, "We can't
keep walking around like a caterpillar!"
1:15
a.m.
HIGH & LOW
Originally known
as Heaven & Hell, this is widely regarded as one of Kurosawa's
most overlooked masterpieces. Loosely based on an Ed McBain novel, it's
the story of a women's shoe magnate, a kidnapping, ransom, double-cross,
and deep moral ambiguity, as an essentially good man must make very
difficult decisions that will affect the rest of his life. Also co-stars
stars Tatsuya Nakadai, an actor who will become crucial the films in
the later part of Kurosawa's life, just as Shimura and Mifune were to
his formative years.
SATURDAY,
MARCH 29
SLOUCHING IN THE SEVENTIES, AND ONE LAST REBIRTH
After two decades
of essentially only winning, Kurosawa's output suddenly came to a violent
halt. Today, we look at his last film in black & white, and then
jump over the wall to view his meagre and seldom-seen '70s output, culminating
with his two last major epics, and closing with some beautiful dreams.
11:00
a.m.
RED BEARD
Red Beard
is a truly pivotal film in the canon. Most importantly, it's the last
film in which Kurosawa worked with Toshiro Mifune, the actor with whom
he is most inextricably tied. Second, it's his last film shot in black
& white. Third, it's the last time he was able to still work semi-comfortably
within the studio system - after the cost overruns and absurdly long
shooting/creation time (over two years of constant work), Kurosawa became
the long-suffering pariah of the Japanese film industry. Furthermore,
the film - yet another "kindly country doctor" piece with
Mifune this time in the role of the older, fatherly imparter-of-wisdom,
is not really one of his best. It's far from the worst, don't get me
wrong - the film's 3+ hour running time allows the small, daily events
in the life of a country hospital to unfold naturally, immersing you
in the day-to-day culture, the troubles of its patients, and the slow,
unforced transformation of a cocky young intern into a caring man of
medicine. But it's no top-5er. Still, a story to lose yourself in.
2:15
p.m.
DODES KA'DEN
 Fast-forward
six whole years: after years of putting out at least a movie a year,
Kurosawa was now suffering the Kubrick Syndrome. From here on out, each
major film will each take about five years to create/fund/release, with
financial backing coming from all manner of unlikely sources. Abandoned
by the studios and a failed suicide attempt behind him, he co-founded
The Committee of the Four Knights, a sort of coalition of four major
Japanese directors, in 1971. It was an attempt to wake up the film industry
to the value of pure cinema, with this film serving as its flagship.
Unfortunately for the Four Knights, the film, a rather slight meditation
upon the lives of slum-dwellers living in a city almost totally made
from garbage, tanked at the box office. It doesn't take any topic head-on,
nor does it purely devolve into pure entertainment (though it tries
the latter more than the former). Lingering somewhere in the middle,
this episodic affair isn't what most people would cite as the best Kurosawa
offering to start with, but it's interesting to see it as a recovering-after-the-fall
effort, kind of like Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip.
4:45
p.m.
DERSU UZALA
Still more foundering
on the sharp rocks. Released in 1975, this film was funded, produced,
and shot in Russia, and is entirely in the Russian language, further
proof of Kurosawa's pariah status in his own country. Not that exile
is necessarily a sign of creative bankruptcy...consider the later
films of Dusan Makavejev and/or Andrei Tarkovsky to find films by directors
spurned by their respective homelands, yet still able to make amazing
films. This film, however, tracking the long relationship between a
Russian soldier and a grizzled Asiatic outdoorsman, does not compare
with Gorilla Bathes at Noon or The Sacrifice. It is, however,
beautifully shot, epically conceived, and another admirable lunge forward,
clawing out opportunities for more masterpieces to come.
7:10
p.m.
KAGEMUSHA
After much struggling
throughout the '70s to produce...well, anything, Kurosawa got a much-needed
shot in the arm in 1980 from two of his biggest devotees. With Japanese
funding/interest at an all-time low, he funded his next big-budget costume
epic, 1980s Kagemusha, with the assistance of longtime fans and
friends George Lucas (THX-1138, American Graffiti) and
Francis Ford Coppola (Peggy Sue Got Married, Dementia 13),
who served as executive producers (Lucas, in particular, was able to
shovel bucketloads of money into Kurosawa's lap, having just done a
few favors for his studio with this little sci-fi space-opera thing
he had recently filmed...you don't really need to see it, it's an awful
lot like The Hidden Fortress!). After Dersu Uzala's intentionally-muted
color palette (Kurosawa said he wanted it to appear as much like a black
& white movie as possible, with only the humans providing color
amidst the stark tundra), this lugubrious costume epic revels in the
dynamic interplay between the color wheel's most spurned colors - check
out that film still below! It's about a warlord in medieval Japan who
dies in battle, a death which is unseen by his forces. The warlord's
major generals, believing that without a leader, the morale of their
troops will dissipate, go on a desparate search for a stand-in, and
find one, a common ruffian who looks exactly like the warlord (and who
is, of course, played by the same actor). As bloody war is waged on
the field, the generals nervously try out the new "emperor"
in front of his wife (who is also unaware of her husband's death), his
troops, and his horse (which, of course, led to the famous aphorism,
"if you ain't foolin' the horse, you ain't foolin' nobody...").
Kurosawa later admitted that Kagemusha was little more than a
"dry run" for an even bigger epic that he really wanted
to film. Even still, as dry runs go, this is pretty lucious, and absolutely
a masterpiece all its own. After nearly a decade and a half, the curse
was lifted.
10:15
p.m.
RAN
A creaking,
howling beast of an epic, and surely the last tumultuous cinematic howl
from Kurosawa's dark place before his death - the final three films
read like the dénouement for a consistently-escalating 60 years
of filmmaking. It's an enormous, colorful, blood-soaked, two-fisted
retelling of King Lear, with Kurosawa regular Tatsuya Nakadai
as an elder warlord who, tired of fighting his entire life, decided
to peacefully abdicate his throne and divide his considerable kingdom
up among his three beloved sons. One of the sons, feeling that this
will lead to more war and strife, rebels against the notion, and is
expelled from the family. As he predicted, though, the other two sons
wage fearful war on each other for control of the rest of the kingdom,
and dear old dad is sent packing into the desolate wilderness, with
only a jester (madman) and aide as his companion. It should sound familiar
if you've read Shakespeare, but Shakespeare lacked the budget to send
two enormous casts of soldiers, decked in red and yellow, down into
a huge valley to hack each other to bits in order to emphasize the failures
of a lifetime warrior's final decision. Shakespeare: 0; Kurosawa: 1!
One of at least ten true highlights of the festival, this will be one
not to miss.
12:45
a.m.
DREAMS
Kind of late
to be starting this one, I know, but since it's eight short mini-movies,
each dealing with different sorts of dreams (one stars Martin Scorsese
as Vincent Van Gogh!), it's probably the perfect film for the faithful
few to drift off to. Which is fine...drift and dream away, but don't
for a second think that I'm not going to kick you out when it's over,
cuz baby, you don't have to stay home, but you can't stay here (unless
you brought a sleeping bag, and can handle a wood floor)!
SUNDAY,
MARCH 30
NOT YET! KUROSAWA'S PARTING THOUGHTS, AND A DAY OF DOCS AS YET
UNMATCHED IN STIFF-LEG HISTORY
The final two
films in Kurosawa's oeuvre are hardly must-sees, but I'd still keep
'em in mind if I were you. Also, we've got so many documentaries to
shove down your gullet, you'll friggin' puke! (use the bucket, please)
10:00
a.m.
RHAPSODY IN AUGUST
 Uh,
yeah. Richard Gere's in this - he's supposed to be a half-Japanese cousin
of a family that survived the atomic bomb. Uh huh. Go ahead and get
your rest - I'll see you in a few hours.
11:45
a.m.
MADADAYO
The final peaceful
sigh from a director who clocked over SIXTY YEARS of film-making, this
is an appropriately low-key finale to a life of strife and struggle.
Set in the '40s, it concerns a retired college professor, who left the
city after an air raid to live in a hut in the woods and write. His
still-adoring students celebrate with him on all of his subsequent birthdays,
each event climaxing with him holding a mug of beer, his student asking
"Is it time yet?" (i.e. time to die), to which he replies,
"Madadayo!" ("Not yet!") before chug-a-lugging.
It's a slow, careful, melancholy film celebrating the end of life, the
quiet moments before the departure to the other side - a fitting coda
to a man who, after fighting with the studios tooth and nail to tell
the stories he wanted to, was finally preparing for a good, long rest
- he died the year of its release five years later [I don't know
where I got that mistaken info].
And
now...you've seen all the films. It's time for....
DAY
OF THE DOCUMENTARIES!
 Yesirree,
folks...for the rest of the day, the Stiff-Legged Film Festival turns
its attention to the stories behind the creation of all these fine films.
Since the Criterion Collection has been so generous with its bonus material
on the Kurosawa re-releases, we have a bounty of great material to sift
through - so much so, in fact, that only a portion of it will be shown
(after all, we all have work on Monday morning!).
2:05
p.m.
KUROSAWA AND THE
CENSORS (Documentary)
Specifically
dealing with material related to Drunken Angel, this is a fine
half-hour about the post-war regulations Kurosawa had to wend his way
through in order to tell his stories the way he wanted to, and all the
places along the way where necessary concessions had to be made to tell
any worthwhile story at all.
2:30
p.m.
SEVEN SAMURAI:
ORIGINS AND INFLUENCES (Documentary)
A sixty-minute
crash course in the history of Japanese cinema, and Kurosawa's place
in it, narrated by all manner of film-crit talking heads, including
Steven Prince (author of one of the best books on Kurosawa's films,
The Warrior's Camera). It's easy to think that Kurosawa's costume
epics and Samuri period-films were authentic and traditional, but the
truth is, they were quite radical - most Japanese film-makers set their
samuri epics during the time when the feudal system was in full swing,
and samurai were dedicated servants of their respective masters, fighting
for the side of right and good in a rather dull, Superman/Captain America
kind of way. Kurosawa, choosing instead to set his films after the decline
of the samuri class and the downfall of the feudal system, allows his
wandering ronin the opportunity to carve out their own morality
in a rapidly-changing world. Stuff
like that is what this documentary is about.
3:30
p.m.-
9:45 p.m.
AKIRA KUROSAWA:
IT IS WONDERFUL TO CREATE (Documentary Series)
3:30 p.m.
- DRUNKEN ANGEL
4:02 p.m. - STRAY DOG
4:34 p.m. - IKIRU
5:15 p.m. - THE SEVEN SAMURAI
6:05 p.m. - THE LOWER DEPTHS
6:38 p.m. - THE BAD SLEEP WELL
7:11 p.m. - YOJIMBO
7:56 p.m. - SANJURO
8:30 p.m. - KAGEMUSHA
9:12 p.m. - RAN
These little
in-depth looks at some of Kurosawa's most famous films were originally
shown as a series of TV specials in Japan, created by Toho Studios to
honor the director. Criterion included a number of them on their re-releases
of his films. I'm showing these with rapid-fire start times - no breaks
between - so the time shown is going to be accurate, give or take a
few seconds, so don't dilly-dally if you have a pet film which you'd
like to scope out.
9:45
p.m.
AKIRA KUROSAWA:
MY LIFE IN CINEMA (Documentary)
A nice, slow
medidation on film-making and the history of 20th century film. Kurosawa
in a two-hour conversation with film-maker Nagasa Oshima, looking back
on his life and his films. So yeah, it's two hours of old Japanese guys
talking about movie-making. Sounds to me like it might be time to get
up, stretch the legs, and crack open a warm sake! Unless you've got
a big day at work on Monday, now's the time when most people start popping
the top on their favorite alcoholic beverages and clinking a toast to
me and my awesomeness for hosting an epic-ass festival like this one.
So get to it!
11:45
p.m.
EPHEMERA:
Whiskey, Newsreels, and the Adoration of Western Film-Makers
A clutch of
"bonus tracks" to round things off. Suntory Whiskey filmed
several commercials with Kurosawa (some claim the whiskey commericals
in Lost in Translation were influenced by these), drinking and
talking through details on Kagemusha with Francis Coppola. Also,
a two-minute newsreel filmed during the time of The Quiet Duel,
and maybe some ridin'-of-the-jock from folks like Robert Altman (who
gushes in his curmudgeonly way about the awesomeness of Rashomon),
Francis Coppola, and George Lucas (ditto The Hidden Fortress).
We'll probably whip out the trailer reel I cobbled together and let
that run too as warm sake floods our senses.
Congratulations!
You made it!
Now
go home!
|
