Sanshiro Sugata I and II

Akira Kurosawa Centenniel

When
Wed Jul 7, 2010
Where
Pacific Film Archive (PFA)
Time
7:00-9:43 PM
Cost
$5.50 - $9.50
Tags
Movies, Film Screenings

Description

7:00 Sanshiro Sugata
Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1943)

(Sugata Sanshiro). Kurosawa made his directorial debut in 1943, during the height of World War II and at a time when “you weren’t allowed to say anything worth saying,” as he recalled. “Back then everyone was saying that the Japanese-style film should be as simple as possible; I disagreed and decided that, since I couldn’t say anything because of the censors, I would make a really movie-like movie.” Concerning a hero’s awakening and embrace of a larger ideal (in this case, judo), the film’s dazzling cinematic energy is already pure Kurosawa, complete with novel fight scenes (one done entirely in darkness and shadow, another shot on a windswept, grassy mountainside) and a remarkable control of filmic techniques for capturing emotion, space, and time; one montage of a pair of discarded sandals, for instance, conveys the passing of the seasons with an economy that’s as simple, and as pure, as a line of poetry. Within these eighty minutes lie the foundation of an entire career.—Jason Sanders

• Written by Kurosawa, based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita. Photographed by Akira Mimura. With Susumu Fujita, Denjiro Okochi, Yukiko Todoroki, Akitake Kono. (80 mins, In Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, Permission Janus/Criterion Collection)

More Info

Link
http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/kurosawa_centennial
Call
510.643.2197
Call
(510) 642-5249 (Box Office)
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Location

  1. Pacific Film Archive (PFA)
    2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA