IFC Center's "Weekend Classics" Program Presents Sixteen Features by the Japanese Master, Through September 17
"Kurosawa," a series of sixteen features by one of the titans of world cinema, plays weekends at the IFC Center through September 18. Showing as part of the Center's ongoing "Weekend Classics" program, series highlights include RASHOMON, the director's first international hit; the King Lear adaptation RAN; the epic THE SEVEN SAUMURAI, a perennial entry on All-Time-Best lists; YOJIMBO and SANJURO, two darkly comic actioners starring longtime Kurosawa collaborator Toshiro Mifune at his most iconic; as well as the rarely screened Cannes-winner KAGEMUSHA and Kurosawa's adaptation of Gorky's THE LOWER DEPTHS. The films screen Fridays through Sundays at noon, with additional shows on holiday weekends. A complete schedule is below.
Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) trained as a painter before turning to filmmaking. He came up through the ranks of Japan's studio system as an assistant director and a screenwriter before directing his first feature in 1943. Over the next five decades, Kurosawa wrote and directed more than 30 features. His body of work is remarkable not only for its breadth and richness, but also for the fluid ways in which it adapted such wide-ranging sources as Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and American crime novels into movies both distinctly and organically Japanese, and yet widely popular with foreign audiences. His first international hit, RASHOMON, took the Venice Film Festival by storm in 1951 and was virtually singlehandedly responsible for bringing Japanese cinema to the attention of Europe and the U.S. He also established the screen persona of Japan's first international star, Toshiro Mifune, in the sixteen films they made together.
Deeply admired by the generation of American directors who emerged in the 1970s-Spielberg, Scorsese, and Lucas among them-Kurosawa was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1990 for "cinematic accomplishments that have inspired, delighted, enriched and entertained worldwide audiences and influenced filmmakers throughout the world." His films have proven to be among the most imitated in all of cinema, having inspired such direct and indirect remakes as THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (from SEVEN SAMURAI), A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (YOJIMBO), and STAR WARS (THE HIDDEN FORTRESS).
An exhibition of international posters of Kurosawa films will be on display concurrently in the Posteritati at IFC Center gallery at the theater.
KUROSAWA Weekends through September 17 at IFC Center
Friday, April 28-Sunday, April 30 at noon
I LIVE IN FEAR(1955)
Friday, May 12-Sunday, May 14 at noon
RAN (1985)
Friday, May 19-Sunday, May 21 at noon
RASHOMON (1950)
Friday, May 26-Monday, May 29 at noon
SEVEN SAMURAI (1954)
Friday, June 9-Sunday June 11 at noon
DERSU UZALA (1975)
Friday, June 23-Sunday, June 25 at noon
KAGEMUSHA (1980)
Friday, June 30, Sunday, July 2 & Tuesday, July 4 at noon
YOJIMBO (1961)
Saturday, July 1 & Monday, July 3 at noon
SANJURO (1962)
Friday, July 14-Sunday, July 16 at noon
STRAY DOG (1949)
Friday, July 21-Sunday, July 23 at noon
THE BAD SLEEP WELL (1960)
Friday, July 28-Sunday, July 30 at noon
THE LOWER DEPTHS (1957)
Friday, August 11-Sunday, August 13 at noon
DRUNKEN ANGEL (1948)
Friday, August 18-Sunday, August 20 at noon
IKIRU (1952)
Friday, August 25-Sunday, August 27 at noon
THRONE OF BLOOD (1955)
Friday, September 1-Monday, September 4 at noon
THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (1958)
Friday, September 15-Sunday, September 17 at noon
HIGH AND LOW (1963)
Friday, August 18-Sunday, August 20 at noon
IKIRU (1952)
Friday, August 25-Sunday, August 27 at noon
THRONE OF BLOOD (1955)
Friday, September 1-Monday, September 4 at noon
THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (1958)
Friday, September 15-Sunday, September 17 at noon
HIGH AND LOW (1963)
The films in this series are released by Janus Films, except for RAN (Wellspring), KAGEMUSHA (Criterion Pictures) and DERSU UZALA (Kino). For information about this series, contact Harris Dew at 212 924-6789 or hdew@ifccenter.com. For showtimes and film details, visit ifccenter.com. Box office: 212 924-7771. Tickets online at movietickets.com.