Tackling King Lear in his seventies with the same gusto he brought to Macbeth 25 years earlier, Kurosawa has a great warlord blindly plunging the country into civil war when he divides his kingdom between his three sons. If there are parallels with his own troubled career, it’s clear that the filmmaker saw this as a universal statement on the human condition: “Man is born crying, and when he dies, enough, he dies.”
Surprisingly Kurosawa didn’t embrace colour until 1970, but there is no denying the rhapsodic pageantry of Ran; he marshaled colour-coded armies with supreme artistry, creating some of the most vivid and nightmarish battle scenes ever filmed. Tatsuya Nakadai, who plays the warlord, first worked with Kurosawa on Seven Samurai in 1954, and is still acting to this day.
Sunday’s Pantheon screening will begin with a short 15-20 minute introductory lecture, and feature a book club-style discussion afterwards.
Jan 21: Introduced by Mike Archibald, writer, editor and filmmaker
Born and raised in Vancouver, Mike Archibald is a writer, editor and filmmaker. He studied film at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema and has worked with various festivals in this city, including DOXA and VIFF.
A great, glorious achievement.
Roger Ebert
In many respects, it’s Kurosawa’s most sumptuous film, a feast of color, motion and sound: Considering that its brethren include Kagemusha, Seven Samurai and Dersu Uzala, the achievement is extraordinary.
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian
Presented by
Akira Kurosawa
Tatsuya Nakadai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Mieko Harada, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Hisashi Igawa, Peter
Japan/France
1985
In Japanese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Screenwriter
Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Masato Ide
Cinematography
Takao Saitô, Masaharu Ueda, Asakazu Nakai
Editor
Akira Kurosawa
Original Music
Tôru Takemitsu
Production Design
Yoshirô Muraki, Shinobu Muraki
Also in This Series
Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise)
The crowning glory of classical French cinema, this sumptuous melodrama brings to life the early 19th century Boulevard du Crime in Paris, where popular audiences for mime shows and carnival rub shoulders with wealthy patrons of classical theatre.
The Wild Bunch (Director's Cut)
The Mexico/Texas borderlands, 1913: Pike (William Holden) leads his gang of aging outlaws on a foray south for one last hurrah. Peckinpah's masterpiece, a savage lament for men who believe in nothing but find respect by dying in vain.
The Ascent
During the darkest winter of WWII, two Soviet partisans venture through the backwoods of Belarus in search of food, always at risk of falling into enemy hands. In her masterpiece Larisa Shepitko zeroes in on profound spiritual and philosophical themes.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Céline Sciamma's queer costume drama -- about a painter covertly studying a young noblewoman who refuses to sit for her portrait -- was voted 30th Greatest Film Ever Made in a 2022 poll, the highest ranking film of the past decade.
I Am Cuba
Infused with a palpable love for the country and a righteous anger at the injustices of the Batista era, I Am Cuba features some of the jaw-dropping camerawork ever filmed. A euphoric celebration of Cuba, the Revolution, and revolutionary cinema.
The Colour of Pomegranates + The House Is Black
This month's Pantheon screening is a double-bill, Sergei Parajanov's extraordinary evocation of the life and work of C18th Armenian poet Sayat Nova, and, The House is Black (22 min), the only film directed by the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad.