Kurosawa Akira

1
Kurosawa Akira

• Film Style

2
Perfectionist

• Movie directors, or should I say people who
  create things,
• are verygreedy and they can never be satisfied.
  Thats
• why they can keep on working. Ive been able to
  work for
• so long because I think next time Ill make
  something
• good."

3
Perfectionist

• Total control over his film -
• auteur
• I am my film nothing
• more and nothing less.
• Kurosawa Akira
• Screenwriter, director and editor
• He expected the same enthusiasm and dedication
  from his staff and co-workers.

4
PerfectionistAnecdotes

• Nickname Emperor
• The director who made something impossible
  possible.
• 20 tons of water was used for the opening scene
  of Rashomon and the local area ran out of water.
• The water was coloured with calligraphy ink.
• He demanded all furniture had to be antique and
  they had to be filled with antique clothes and
  materials.

5
Perfectionist

• Kurosawa got the roof of a house removed to film
  a short scene from a train in Tengoku to Jigoku.
• Kurosawa demanded to change the direction of
  river flow for better visual effects.
• Kurosawa asked actors call each other by the
  names of the character that they played and wore
  their costumes before, during and after
  rehearsals.

6
Perfectionist

• Kurosawa used real arrows for the concluding
  scenes of Throne of Blood. Master archers aimed
  at the targets only inches away from Washizus
  body.

7
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Film style to appeal to the emotion rather than
  intellect of the spectator
• Psychological rather than mimetic realism
• (Mimesis mimicry and copying of reality)

8
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• The emotional appeal is multiplied by visual
  images and sound effects being brought together.
• Heightened psychological realism - expressive
  mise-en-scène (acting, lighting, camera work, and
  composition).

9
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Visual dynamism and kineticism - epic scale
  movement of the subjects on the screen shot by
  multiple camera and edited in frantic paces.
• The final battle sequence of Seven Samurai shot
  with 8 cameras and edited rapidly.

10
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Cinematic sound is that which does not simply
• add to, but multiplies, two or three times, the
• effect of the image.
• Kurosawa Akira

11
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Sound effects of beating rain, running horses,
  their cries, splashing water, mens yelling
  mixed together to create dynamic sound track in
  Shichi Nin no Samurai.

12
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Emotional appeal and psychological realism
  achieved by lighting and camera work.
• Rashomon - shot by Miyagawa Kazuo, the
  photographer of Mizoguchi Kenji

13
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Geometrical and painterly compositions enhance
  psychological effects on the audience - two
  police detectives pursuing the murderer who has
  killed people using the gun that he stole from
  them - vertical shadows of grills create create
  psychological suspense (photo, Stray Dog)

14
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• The bed of flowers on which the young couple lie
  or sit - creating lyrical effects in No Regrets
  for Our Youth and Seven Samurai

15
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Paisley patters of the futon hang to dry in Red
  Beard was shot with a telephoto lens. Depth
  disappeared and two dimensional quality
  emphasized the patterns.

16
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Natural phenomenon visually and aurally
  emphasizes the emotional atmosphere of the scene.
  
• Howling wind and fierce rain
• Strong wind churning up sand - bleak townscape
  Yojinbo

17
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• The opening scene of Rashomon, a ruined gate in a
  great storm.
• Natural phenomenon reveals the smallness and
  weakness of the human being and its rational
  power and moral strength.

18
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Snow in the park which Watanabe greatly
  contributed to get built and where he dies. Ikiru
• Loneliness and ephemerality

19
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Intense heat in Stray Dog and High and Low
• Heat is metaphor for corruption, social
  impoverishment, and criminality

20
Hyper-stylistic Filmmaking

• Dense fog and mist - hinting the existence of
  super-natural being and super-human power.
• Throne of Blood, Ran and Dreams