Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
Akira Kurosawa on the set of Yojimbo (1961) (via)

Akira Kurosawa on the set of Yojimbo (1961) (via)

Masaru Sato - Titles (Yojimbo: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Seven Samurai (1954, dir. Akira Kurosawa) (via)

Seven Samurai (1954, dir. Akira Kurosawa) (via)

Akira Kurosawa conferring with Francis Ford Coppola for a commercial they filmed for Suntory Whiskey during the shoot of Kagemusha. The commercial can be seen here.  (via)

Akira Kurosawa conferring with Francis Ford Coppola for a commercial they filmed for Suntory Whiskey during the shoot of Kagemusha. The commercial can be seen here. 

(via)

Masaru Sato - High and Low (The Complete Soundtracks of Akira Kurosawa)

Akira Kurosawa with Martin Scorsese, who is getting made up for his turn as Vincent Van Gogh in Kurosawa’s Dreams (via)

Akira Kurosawa with Martin Scorsese, who is getting made up for his turn as Vincent Van Gogh in Kurosawa’s Dreams (via)

Throne of Blood (1957, dir. Akira Kurosawa) (via)

Throne of Blood (1957, dir. Akira Kurosawa) (via)

Dersu Uzala (1975, dir. Akira Kurosawa) (via)

Dersu Uzala (1975, dir. Akira Kurosawa) (via)

Isuzu Yamada as Asaji/Lady Macbeth in Throne of Blood (1957, dir. Akira Kurosawa) “Out, damn’d spot! out, I say! What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” (via)

Isuzu Yamada as Asaji/Lady Macbeth in Throne of Blood (1957, dir. Akira Kurosawa)

“Out, damn’d spot! out, I say! What need we fear who knows it when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”

(via)

Masaru Sato - The Throne of Blood (The Film Music of Akira Kurosawa)

Akira Kurosawa sets up the shot of Toshiro Mifune’s death in Throne of Blood (1957) (via) “In order to write scripts, you must first study the great novels and dramas of the world. You must consider why they are great. Where does the emotion come from that you feel as you read them? What degree of passion did the author have to have, what level of meticulousness did he have to command, in order to portray the characters and events as he did? You must read thoroughly, to the point where you can grasp all these things.” -Kurosawa, Something Like an Autobiography 

Akira Kurosawa sets up the shot of Toshiro Mifune’s death in Throne of Blood (1957) (via)

“In order to write scripts, you must first study the great novels and dramas of the world. You must consider why they are great. Where does the emotion come from that you feel as you read them? What degree of passion did the author have to have, what level of meticulousness did he have to command, in order to portray the characters and events as he did? You must read thoroughly, to the point where you can grasp all these things.”

-Kurosawa, Something Like an Autobiography 

Takashi Shimura as Watanabe, the bureaucrat doomed to die from cancer, in Ikiru (1952, dir. Akira Kurosawa)  “Occasionally I think of my death … then I think, how could I ever bear to take a final breath; while living a life like this, how could I leave it? There is, I feel, so much more for me to do — I keep feeling I have lived so little yet. Then I become thoughtful, but not sad. It was from such a feeling that Ikiru arose.” -Kurosawa, quoted in Akira Kurosawa: Interviews (via)

Takashi Shimura as Watanabe, the bureaucrat doomed to die from cancer, in Ikiru (1952, dir. Akira Kurosawa) 

“Occasionally I think of my death … then I think, how could I ever bear to take a final breath; while living a life like this, how could I leave it? There is, I feel, so much more for me to do — I keep feeling I have lived so little yet. Then I become thoughtful, but not sad. It was from such a feeling that Ikiru arose.”

-Kurosawa, quoted in Akira Kurosawa: Interviews

(via)

Akira Kurosawa standing before a projected image of his favorite leading man, Toshiro Mifune (1963, photo by Brian Bake) “During youth the desire for self-expression is so overpowering that most people end up by losing all grasp on their real selves.” -Kurosawa, in his 1982 memoir Something Like an Autobiography 

Akira Kurosawa standing before a projected image of his favorite leading man, Toshiro Mifune (1963, photo by Brian Bake)

“During youth the desire for self-expression is so overpowering that most people end up by losing all grasp on their real selves.”

-Kurosawa, in his 1982 memoir Something Like an Autobiography 

Masayuki Mori & Machiko Kyō in Rashomon (1950, dir. Akira Kurosawa) (via) Marge: C’mon, Homer, Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon. Homer: That’s not how I remember it. -The Simpsons, Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo

Masayuki Mori & Machiko Kyō in Rashomon (1950, dir. Akira Kurosawa) (via)

Marge: C’mon, Homer, Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon.

Homer: That’s not how I remember it.

-The Simpsons, Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo