Defining the Most Beautiful: Women in the Films of Akira Kurosawa, 1940-1970
Akira Kurosawa walked a fine line in his treatment and portrayal of women in his films, and he didn’t always walk it without stumbling.
Film
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1960 – 1962
Today’s Kurosawa 101 covers three of his most popular and accessible films Yojimbo and Sanjuro, as well as arguably his most earnest, The Bad Sleep Well.
The Brush and the Lens: Akira Kurosawa As Painter and Filmmaker
As a painter and filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa stuck to his own style, informed heavily by traditional Japanese painting as well as European impressionists and expressionists, another arena of art where he answered to both Eastern and Western influences.
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.
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.
Jayro Bustamente’s War Crimes Film, ‘La Llorona’, Reckons with Crushing Guilt
Bustament’s Efraín Ríos Montt-inspired La Llorona reimagines the Latin American folk tale of a woman mourning her children along the banks of the river where they drowned.
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.
Can We Overcome the Crisis Inflicted on Jarecki’s ‘Crisis’?
Are the injustices allegedly committed by actor Armie Hammer worth muzzling ‘Crisis’, a film that’s a window into the widespread injustices of Big Pharma?
Filmmaker and Critic Virginie Despentes Is Still, Unfortunately, Quite Necessary
Virginie Despentes’ feminist arguments in her recently rebooted collection of essays, King Kong Theory, remain fresh and frustratingly relevant.
The Transformational Film Lens: D. Mitry on ‘My True Fairytale’
Director D. Mitry talks with PopMatters about his debut feature film, My True Fairytale, whose story aligns with the tragic loss of his daughter.