Spoilers herein.
Well, filmmaking doesn't get more personal than this. Conceptually, it fits between `Ran' and `Red Beard,' but the central character is clearly reflective of the esteemed filmmaker.
This Prospero is a writer. (Though he was also a German teacher, it is his writing that makes him special.) We have the requisite three worlds: the `real' world of Kurosawa, (who creates) the world of Uchida, (who creates) the world of Nora, the cat. Uchida appreciates another culture's literature as Kurosawa does (in American film).
Kurosawa often uses a narrative device where stillness in the narrative increases the energy of the target. It is a definitive Japanese concept, but one that we who have lived with him know. So here, as we watch the slow aging and housing and visiting of the man, as we settle into the ordinariness of what we see, our attention is focused on the fulcrum of the whole thing: the fate of Nora.
Kurosawa's point here is that his students love him of course. But once he is gone, they'll find another. He knows we venerate his films, and also knows that he is merely a small hut in which we stay while under duress, but that we will move on as the opportunity avails.
There's a particularly wonderful episode at his first party. There amidst all the worshiping speeches, a man gets up and recites all the train stops on a very long line, a reference to his self-reference in `Dodesukaden.' There are many such references to his other films, possibly every one of them. I caught many and warmly remembered them and him.
Here is the last tapestry of metaphor from the master of film metaphor. Check out the very last: hiding. It was his style to himself hide and to hide things in his work, including the truth of his own concealment. I wish we could all exit with such graceful selfawareness.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.
Well, filmmaking doesn't get more personal than this. Conceptually, it fits between `Ran' and `Red Beard,' but the central character is clearly reflective of the esteemed filmmaker.
This Prospero is a writer. (Though he was also a German teacher, it is his writing that makes him special.) We have the requisite three worlds: the `real' world of Kurosawa, (who creates) the world of Uchida, (who creates) the world of Nora, the cat. Uchida appreciates another culture's literature as Kurosawa does (in American film).
Kurosawa often uses a narrative device where stillness in the narrative increases the energy of the target. It is a definitive Japanese concept, but one that we who have lived with him know. So here, as we watch the slow aging and housing and visiting of the man, as we settle into the ordinariness of what we see, our attention is focused on the fulcrum of the whole thing: the fate of Nora.
Kurosawa's point here is that his students love him of course. But once he is gone, they'll find another. He knows we venerate his films, and also knows that he is merely a small hut in which we stay while under duress, but that we will move on as the opportunity avails.
There's a particularly wonderful episode at his first party. There amidst all the worshiping speeches, a man gets up and recites all the train stops on a very long line, a reference to his self-reference in `Dodesukaden.' There are many such references to his other films, possibly every one of them. I caught many and warmly remembered them and him.
Here is the last tapestry of metaphor from the master of film metaphor. Check out the very last: hiding. It was his style to himself hide and to hide things in his work, including the truth of his own concealment. I wish we could all exit with such graceful selfawareness.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 4: Worth watching.