The best Akira Kurosawa’s movies

Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa

23/03/1910- 06/09/1998
Akira Kurosawa (Kyūjitai: 黒澤 明, Shinjitai: 黒沢 明 Kurosawa Akira; March 23, 1910 – September 6, 1998) was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936, following a brief stint as a painter. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director in 1943, during World War II with the popular action film Sanshiro Sugata (a.k.a. Judo Saga). After the war, the critically acclaimed Drunken Angel (1948), in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown actor Toshirō Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director's reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan. The two men would go on to collaborate on another 15 films. Rashomon, which premiered in Tokyo in August 1950, and which also starred Mifune, became, on September 10, 1951, the surprise winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was subsequently released in Europe and North America. The commercial and critical success of this film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese film artists. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kurosawa directed approximately a film a year, including a number of highly regarded films such as Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961). After the mid-1960s, he became much less prolific, but his later work—including his final two epics, Kagemusha (1980) and Ran (1985)—continued to win awards, including the Palme d'Or for Kagemusha, though more often abroad than in Japan. In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.Posthumously, he was named "Asian of the Century" in the "Arts, Literature, and Culture" category by AsianWeek magazine and CNN, cited as "one of the [five] people who contributed most to the betterment of Asia in the past 100 years". Description above from the Wikipedia article Akira Kurosawa , licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

And the Oscar Goes To...

And the Oscar Goes To...
7.1/10
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.

Kurosawa

Kurosawa
7.3/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 24/12/2000
  • Character: Himself
Documentary on film maker Akira Kurosawa

A. K.

A. K.
7/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 20/05/1985
  • Character: Himself
In 1985, Chris Marker traveled to Japan to attend the filming of Ran, directed by Akira Kurosawa. Marker analyzes the progress of filming; the infinite patience of a team under the orders of a meticulous director down to the smallest detail; the antithetical mixture of the modern with the traditional; of the real with the fictitious; of life with cinema… and literature.

What is Cinema?

What is Cinema?
6.1/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 06/09/2013
  • Character: Himself
Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, David Lynch, and Jonas Mekas, Oscar-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman shows what these filmmakers and others do that can't be expressed in words - but only in cinema.

Babenco: Tell Me When I Die

Babenco: Tell Me When I Die
7.3/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 26/11/2020
  • Character: Self (archive footage)
Besieged by cancer and nearing the end, the genius Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco (1946-2016) asks Bárbara Paz, his wife, for one last wish: to be the protagonist of his own death.

Akira Kurosawa: My Life in Cinema

Akira Kurosawa: My Life in Cinema
7.7/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 01/01/1993
  • Character: Interviewee
Nagisa Oshima interviews Akira Kurosawa, leading him to share his thoughts about filmmaking, his life and works, and numerous anecdotes relating to his films and his various film activities.

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Throne of Blood

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Throne of Blood
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 25/10/2002
  • Character: Interviewee
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Throne of Blood" (1957).

Making of Dreams: A Movie Conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

Making of Dreams: A Movie Conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nobuhiko Ôbayashi
7.5/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 02/11/1990
  • Character: Self
This 150-minute documentary, directed by Nobuhiko Ôbayashi on the set of Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, features behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with cast and crew.

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Seven Samurai

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Seven Samurai
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 25/10/2002
  • Character: Interviewee
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Seven Samurai" (1954).

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Yojimbo

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Yojimbo
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 25/10/2002
  • Character: Interviewee
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Yojimbo" (1961).

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Sanjuro

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Sanjuro
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 25/10/2002
  • Character: Interviewee
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Sanjuro" (1962).

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Dodes'ka-den

Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create: Dodes'ka-den
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 25/10/2002
  • Character: Interviewee (archival)
Documentary made by Toho for the Masterworks reissue of all of its Kurosawa films. This one focuses on "Dodes'ka-den" (1970).

A Message from Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies

A Message from Akira Kurosawa: For Beautiful Movies
7.4/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 01/04/2000
  • Character: Himself
A Documentary in 10 parts covering the film making of Kurosawa around the theme of making the perfect movie or as he says: A Beautiful Movie.

The Art of Cinema

The Art of Cinema

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