Kurosava biography

Latest news biography Akira Kurosava is a cult Japanese film director, who is called the most influential director in the history of cinema. Kurosawa became a classic of cinema both Japan and the whole world, and outside his country the master received even more recognition than in his homeland. Paradoxically, the most powerful influence of the director was exerted on westerns - a genre characteristic of the United States.

The famous director shot three dozen paintings in 57 years of work, in the most fruitful periods there were premieres of two films per year at once. Childhood and youth are one of the most influential world filmmakers Akira Kurosava was born in March, Tokyo became his native city of the future celebrity. Akira turned out to be the youngest of the 8 children of the school director Isama Kurosawa.

Parents were quite wealthy: the family of the eminent director along the father of his father had a samurai origin, the mother was from a merchant family. The progressive father gave the children a good education: he instilled in the heirs a love of world literature and discovered the world of cinema. Isam tried that the descendants knew both the culture of Japan and other countries.

Akira showed various talents. In his youth, Kurosawa graduated from the school of painting and painted perfectly. One of the successful paintings of the future director was even accepted at the prestigious exhibition “Nika-Ten”. At that time, Kurosave Jr. was 18 years old. The success of the undertaking pushed the young man to enter the art college, but the attempt was unsuccessful.

The future master of Japanese cinema for some time worked in the Left Union of Proletarian artists, exhibited, but could not provide himself and gradually lost interest in painting. From the end of the X Kurosawa, he lived with his brother Heigo, who was a talented and popular storyteller of silent cinema in Tokyo cinemas. Thanks to Heigo, he joined the world of cinema. The industry developed rapidly, and with the advent of sound cinema, Akira’s brother was out of work and in M ​​committed suicide.

The director carried the ongoing sense of loss through his whole life. Four months later, the family lost her eldest son - Akira remained the only of the brothers along with the three surviving sisters. Early films when Kurosave was 26 years old, he got a job as an assistant to the film studio Photo Chemical Laboratories Modern Toho. Akira's creative biography developed slowly, he looked at the work of the famous Japanese directors with whom he worked, basicly, it was Kajiro Yamamoto, who became his mentor.

But Kurosawa began activities in the cinema not as a director, but as a screenwriter. His debut picture was called the "horse." She had no success, but allowed the novice director to fill his hand. Subsequently, Akira was the author and co -author of scripts for all his films, he also wrote scripts for other projects, including Hollywood - this was the basis of his earnings until he became famous.

The young master drew attention to criticism. The picture of martial arts, showing the history of judo at the end of the 19th century, also received spectator recognition. After a couple of years, the director even took off his sequel. Each next film Akira turned out to be more successful than the previous one. After the end of the war, in the year, Kurosava gave the audience the dramatic tape "Drunk Angel".

The picture brought him the Kinem Junpo magazine Award and Miniti Simbun newspaper. The main role in the drama was played by Toshiro Mifuna, who at that time was a little -known actor. We can say that the director opened this star to the audience. Subsequently, Mifuna starred in 15 ribbons of the famous director and became the brightest star of the cinema of the country of the rising sun.

This year, the first masterpiece of the director was released - the painting "Rasemon". This is a film adaptation of the story “In the thus” the classic of the new Japanese literature Ryunoske Akutagawa. At the same time, another story of the writer “The Gate of Rasemon” in the script of the film is not used, but atmospheric parallels with this work are noticeable in the picture.

The project was shot in the popular Japanese cinema genre of Jidail - a film about samurai from feudal Japan. But with such a genre and stylistics, the director was able to make a picture of international and possible for the audience and outside the native country. The appearance of Rasemon marked the exit of the Japanese cinema into the world arena, the director of the director appeared in the Western media.

This project brought Akira the first prestigious awards - the Golden Leo at the Venice Film Festival and Oscar for the best film in a foreign language. Further career, the influence of the father manifested itself in the work of Akira in the X years. The descendant of the samurai Isama Kurosawa from childhood instilled in his son a love for the masterpieces of world literature, some of which had Russian origin.

In the year, the film “Idiot” was released on the screens of the Russian genius Fedor Dostoevsky, the novel of the same name. True, Kurosawa changed the storyline and transferred the action of the picture to Hokkaido. In an interview, the director called Dostoevsky his beloved writer.This picture is considered one of the least successful work of the master, since the studio reduced the tape C to minutes with its solution, which made the plot difficult to understand.

The author’s version of the drama has not been preserved. But the “idiot” still successfully held at the box office, mainly thanks to the participation of Setsuko Hara, one of the most popular actresses in the history of Japanese cinema. In the year, Kurosawa again turned to the Russian classics and shot a philosophical dramatic film called “Live”, based on the story of Leo Tolstoy “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”.

The action of the tape was also transferred to Japan. The picture was recognized by critics in their homeland, as well as awards in the IFF, including a special prize of the Berlin Senate at the Berlin Film Festival. The commitment to the Russian classics manifested itself in another creation of Kurosava. In the year, the director shot the film "At the bottom." The picture was based on the work of Maxim Gorky of the same name.

True, Akira in his own copyright reading made the film somewhat ironic. In the year, an unsurpassed masterpiece “Seven Samurai” came out. Like Rasemon, this is a film about samurai related to the genre of Dzidaigeki, but in the new picture the master further advanced along the path of the merger of eastern and western cinema. The main achievement of the filmmaker, which turned the film “Seven Samurai” into a legend, was the interweaving of Western and Eastern cinema traditions, as well as elements and archetypes inherent in high and pop culture.

The picture, which was based on the novels of the American writer Dashil Hammet, after many years caused the trial-Tokho Studio filed a lawsuit on behalf of Akira because Sergio Leon as an unauthorized remake and won the case. In m, the film “Paradise and Hell” was released on the screens - “Tall and Low”, shot by Kurosava in the genre of the detective thriller. Later, the picture was repeatedly called one and the best and, by irony of fate, one of the most underestimated works of the master.

The tape was based on the work of Ed Macbein entitled “King ransom”. Oddly enough, in his homeland, Kurosawa could not boast of popularity. Akira was worn in the west, but in Japan he began a crisis with financing films that brought the glory of both the director and his native country. After the failure of the picture “Under the knock of tram wheels”, he tried to commit suicide.

From the films of the master who received worldwide recognition at that time, two samurai epics stand out: the tape “Kagemem: the shadow of the warrior” and the film “RAS”. In M, the director presented to the attention of the audience a film, called "Dreams" or "Dreams of Akira Kurosava." The composition of the tape composed 8 cinemas, reflecting the eternal topics of life and death, a person’s relationship with nature.

The picture turned out to be technologically innovative - the project used the popularity of computer graphics from ILM. The tape opened the festival in Cannes in the spring of the same year.

The last picture of the master, which saw the light of the year was the drama “Not yet”, it was shown outside the competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The tape was chosen as a candidate for Oscar as the best film in a foreign language, but did not get into the final list of nominees. In the USSR, one of the masterpieces of Kurosawa saw the light thanks to the Russian film studio Mosfilm, on the basis of which the director was invited to work.

The painting "Dersu Uzala" is the first work of the Creator not in Japanese. The tape was based on the works of the Russian traveler and ethnographer Vladimir Arsenyev “In the Ussuri Territory” and “Dersu Uzala”. The image of the researcher himself in the picture was tried by actor Yuri Solomin, and Maxim Munzuk played Dersu. Later in honor of the brilliant director and his creations in Arseniev in the Primorsky Territory, a commemorative stone was established.

Personal life with the future wife Akira met on the set of the film “The Most Beautiful” by Yoko Yaguti, the performers of the main female role, there were constantly disagreements with the director, but thanks to the disputes they became close. In order for the propaganda picture about the life of factory workers to become reliable, Kurosava settled the actresses in the factory, after some time they rebelled and sent Yaguti to the master as a negotiator.

Yoko was already pregnant and did not return to acting, devoting herself to the family. The personal life of Akira Kurosava and his second half Yoko formed happily. In love and without scandals and shocks, the couple lived to the death of the director. Two children were born in this union: the son of Hisao, who later became a producer, and the daughter of Kazu, who chose a modeling of clothing with the profession.

The death of Akira Kurosawa in the year, when Kurosawa shot his last picture, he received a serious injury to his back, due to which he found himself in a wheelchair. He dreamed of dying at his workplace - on the set. But life ordered differently. In the year, in order to honor the memory of the great director, Takashi Koizumi shot the Franco-Japanese film “After the Rain” according to the script of Kurosawa himself.Since this project acted as a tribute to memory, Takashi was concerned with the crew to be related to the master of the cinema.

The composer “after the rain” became Masaru Sato, who had previously worked on the paintings of the master. In addition, the actor Hamaguti Mifuna, the son of Tosiro Mifuna, who was popular with the roles in the paintings of the director, received one of the roles.