Occupation Inspiration
Drunken Angel (1948)
directed by Akira Kurosawa
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from JL
Akira Kurosawa is a director whose gifts are sometimes inhibited by his reputation as a "master" of the form, because when critics or professors say "best ever" in relation to international movie-makers who made movies in the thirties and forties (like Sergei Eisenstein or Vittorio De Sica, or even John Ford in the good old US of A), those teachers are still hanging on to the idea of early cinema as a primarily silent, visual medium, and as such, a longed-for relic of a "purer" form. What that means is that shot-by-shot analyses become the definitive means of educating students, which is why everyone complains about being bored to death by Citizen Kane.
But everyone can agree on how enjoyable Kurosawa's best films are, and Drunken Angel is exactly the reason why. For all the visual metaphors of a rancid, festering sump, the guy this slummy neon post-war Tokyo (beautifully "bombed about a bit" a year before The Third Man) most reminds me of is love 'em and leave 'em cheapskate Sam Fuller. The lightbulb marquees, big wooden doors, lots of projectiles lobbed through American glass windows: you need some noise to make a great movie (well, most of the time), and some semblance of the audience you're making it for. It's why Kane is the least of Orson's efforts, and why this and Stray Dog make more with so much less.
directed by Akira Kurosawa
rating: 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from JL
Akira Kurosawa is a director whose gifts are sometimes inhibited by his reputation as a "master" of the form, because when critics or professors say "best ever" in relation to international movie-makers who made movies in the thirties and forties (like Sergei Eisenstein or Vittorio De Sica, or even John Ford in the good old US of A), those teachers are still hanging on to the idea of early cinema as a primarily silent, visual medium, and as such, a longed-for relic of a "purer" form. What that means is that shot-by-shot analyses become the definitive means of educating students, which is why everyone complains about being bored to death by Citizen Kane.
But everyone can agree on how enjoyable Kurosawa's best films are, and Drunken Angel is exactly the reason why. For all the visual metaphors of a rancid, festering sump, the guy this slummy neon post-war Tokyo (beautifully "bombed about a bit" a year before The Third Man) most reminds me of is love 'em and leave 'em cheapskate Sam Fuller. The lightbulb marquees, big wooden doors, lots of projectiles lobbed through American glass windows: you need some noise to make a great movie (well, most of the time), and some semblance of the audience you're making it for. It's why Kane is the least of Orson's efforts, and why this and Stray Dog make more with so much less.
posted by NPK at 8:25 AM
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