Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1955 – 1958
After creating two masterpieces in Ikiru and Seven Samurai, Kurosawa put his genius on display on three more brilliant films that were unlike anything he had previously done.
Film Feature
The Spectacle of Spectatorship in Cecil B. DeMille’s ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’
DeMille’s ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ is about spectacle and how people make a living fabricating gargantuan, silly, and sometimes dangerous fodder for the gawping public.
Rum, Pregnancy, and the Lash, or, You Shall Know Them by Their Forbidden Fruits
Kino Lorber’s latest Forbidden Fruit crop yields The Lash of the Penitentes, The Wages of Sin, and Misery and Fortune of Women.
Director Lawrence Michael Levine Wrestles with God and Mortals to Make ‘Black Bear’
At the release of his latest film, Black Bear, director Lawrence Michael Levine talks about the struggle of bringing artistic order to real-world chaos.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954)
Today’s Kurosawa 101 focuses on what’s generally regarded as the greatest Japanese film ever made and perhaps the greatest in world film: Seven Samurai.
Widescreen, Big Ideas: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
When Akira Kurosawa made the conversion to a wider screen, he did so by making six consecutive films in widescreen, with a degree of success as resounding as it was influential.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1950 – 1952
Today’s Kurosawa 101 explores two of the greatest films in Kurosawa’s catalog, Rashomon — the film that made Kurosawa and Japanese cinema known throughout the world — and Ikiru — perhaps the greatest film ever made about impending death.
West By East By West: The Influence of Akira Kurosawa on the West and Vice Versa
Through his influences and achievements, Kurosawa became one of the first true international filmmakers, inspiring several generations of filmmakers who would explore notions of genre and identity in film.
‘I Care a Lot’ and the Art of Portraying Awful People
In good films and shows with villains as leads, the protagonists’ ethically questionable actions are at least understandable, and perhaps even defensible. Not so in J Blakeson’s ‘I Care a Lot’.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1949 – 1950
Today’s Kurosawa 101 films include the director’s only effort at bringing a contemporary Japanese stage play to the screen (the rarely seen The Quiet Duel), a police procedural that was the finest Kurosawa film to date (Stray Dog), and a scree against tabloid journalism that resulted in one of the weakest films he would ever direct (Scandal).
Textbook on Film: The Political As Personal in the Films of Kurosawa
Kurosawa’s films often act as deliberate examinations of historical periods, exploring difficult realities that existed and the ordeals of the individuals.