'Ran' is my favourite film of all time. When I fist saw it as a 21 year old student, it completely changed my idea of what cinema could be. It is visually stunning, and the themes drawn from Shakespeare's King Lear are adapted seamlessly, with haunting music and a magical flow of chaos, order, violence and silence. The final image of the blind man somehow manages to convey the human condition more profoundly than anything I've seen. Amazing costume design and cinematography, incredibly poetic battle scenes and great performances especially from Nakadai, Harada, and Ikehata. In a mad world only the mad are sane. A true gem of a film.
Just watched Ran for the first time. Instantly my favorite Kurosawa. The burning of the Third Castle had me spellbound, such a haunting scene. Every director should have to shoot in black and white first like Kurosawa did so that when they finally graduate to color, they use it to maximum effect. And the beautiful noh style makeup on Hidetora and Kaede that make them seem so phantom like. Oh, and those sumptuous robes, the beautifully crafted armor. And all those real extras. At the risk of sounding like a boomer, they just don’t make them like this anymore.
Lady Kaede is a riveting yet horrifying character. I was so impressed by Mieko Harada's performance that I sought her ought in Japanese film and TV. Well I was disappointed by what I saw. Kurosawa clearly gave her a role of a lifetime.
RAN is one of my favourites, the 4K transfer is gorgeous. You can really feel Kurosawa's nihilism and depression through this film. Combine that with the fact that his painting style started to bleed into the way he made his films and you have one of the most beautifully grim movies ever made (on an epic, high budget scale no less).
2 years later and stuckmann got even worse.. He's not honest in his reviews anymore. Jeremy Jahns is imo a lot more honest than stuckmann.. This female.. Btw a beautiful female is not just reviewing she does a whole lot more than just reviewing.
@@HILAL19564 She is educating us and help us enhance our perception in films. I love her, her wits are certainly what makes her so charming especially that she taught me and a lot of people how to appreciate film and its inner soul
Kurosawa was an avid reader of Dostoevsky and I think this actually shows more in this particular film than in his adaptation of The Idiot: the family structure is pretty much the same as in The Brothers Karamazov, with the father being volatile and tyrannical while the eldest son is weak, the second son is cunning and only the third son genuinely loves his father. The woman, who is pure of heart, and the blind adolescent are the redemptive figures, which is also very dostoevskian :)
My favorite of his is still Dreams. Something about it is so different from the rest of his work and so otherworldly and in my opinion it’s by far his best looking film. Would love to see you review more Kurosawa in the future.
I see the entire film as the apocalypse, in a more poetic and humanistic sense. It feels like the end of humanity, no hope left in the world. It’s Kurosawa at his most pessimistic, and it’s one of my all time favourite films. I want it to be the last film I see in my life
Thanks for this! I saw Ran shortly after it came to the US in 1985 and I walked out of that theater in shock, aware of what a towering masterpiece I'd seen. I've never been able to forget it. I own a copy and can watch it at home but it really needs the big screen and big sound to be appreciated to the max. I love Kurasawa's movies; this is my favorite. It may not be for some because it's so stark; but it's unforgettable.
I can only reiterate what I've said before: I love what Kurosawa does with Shakespeare. It has its own flavor like a pork chop served rare but not too bloody …. you sink your teeth in and in an instant feel its juices flow through your veins. Much better, ironically, than what the British usually do with the Bard in cinema. (Twelfth Night 1998 = barf.) Apparently Kurosawa storyboarded the entire film himself IN FULL WATERCOLOR, and if those storyboards still exist they're bound to be worth a fortune for their impact on film composition. Japan refused to submit "Ran" for the Oscars' Best Foreign-Language category, so his American peers in the Best Director category shooed him in for that one to compensate. Because they loved "Ran" that much.
please, do a review of tengoku to jigoku (english: High and Low)! This film by Kurosawa is so criminally underrated it hurts. I think the ending scene is absolutely terrifying, even more than RAN's ending.
Shichinin no Samurai, Yôjinbô, Rashômon. Fantastic movies prominently featuring the great Toshirô Mifune. My favourite though is Kagemusha (the dream scene is noteworthy). The lead actor Tatsuya Nakadai is also in Ran. Haven't seen Ran yet, so will definitely give it a go soon.
I watched Ran in the mid 1990s when it was broadcast on TV in England as part of a showing of world cinema classics. I remember the colours, the overwhelming scenes of battle. My TV was small, but Ran was nevertheless incredibly visceral and powerful. Now my TV is bigger, though isn't even a flat screen: it's an old monstrosity hooked up to stereo speakers and a dvd and vhs player [I like to keep the old ways alive]. I think I'll gain much more from Ran when I watch it for the second time: as I'm inspired to do from this review.
It has been many years since I saw Ran, and you may inspire me to look at it again, in the best home video representation I can find. I remember the scene where the old ruler sits in his castle, shellshocked, as arrows fly past him from the warring parties trying to take power, and he realizes his attempts to forge unity have failed. One historical note I remember about this one is that Ran made an unusually widespread (for the time) release of a non-English-language film in the U.S. It even played in my sizeable but not huge hometown of Flint, Michigan, for a short while (though I did not get the chance to see it then). At the Academy Awards that year, Kurosawa was nominated for best direction, and the interesting bit about that, I think, is that he aced out Steven Spielberg, whose The Color Purple had scored 11 other nominations (meaning that every other best picture nominee's director was also nominated, except for Spielberg). That was exactly 10 years after the same thing had happened to Spielberg for Jaws, where -- after directing the most commercially successful film in actual dollars to that point -- he was aced out by Federico Fellini (for Amarcord). It is hard to argue with either Fellini or Kurosawa ever being nominated (they deserved far more for their great careers), but it was interesting that Spielberg got left out twice, 10 years apart, after superlative achievements.
The 2016 4k restoration is currently only available on a UK Blu-ray. Many who saw the disc, me included, think the picture looks turquoise. You can see screen captures at DVD Beaver. There have been quite a few restorations in recent years that had an aqua-turquoise tint, such as War and Peace (on Criterion BD), Playtime (on Criterion's Complete Tati collection), etc. In film-to-digital transfers, someone has to do "color grading." If this person's judgment is not optimal, there goes the accuracy of the colors. This issue has become a big concern to film fans. Movies shot digitally have no such problem, because all color info is stored digitally already and no change is needed. But with old films, which are analog, transferring them to digital requires color conversion done by humans.
whenever i had a job interview scheduled, i would begin to sabotage myself bcuz of neurocistic obssession and fear and etc. what i found helped me was watching kurosawa's "ran" movie beforehand. there isnt anything in life as anxiety-ridden as this movie, so i sailed through the interviews. whenever i watched this movie before an interview, i got the job.
6:04, this is a tad irrelevant but when you said ‘into’ an Disneyland ad began playing saying ‘the magic is calling you’. I just found that kind of funny, don’t know why. Just thought I’d tell ya.
@8:35: The actor who plays Hidetora is Tatsuya Nakadai, is has always been the go-to in Japanese cinema for making facial expressions that scream catatonic madness, which was definitive in "The Sword of Doom" (1966). Here he is now: th-cam.com/video/kfzLeFuq2jM/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/1Qc_lyWnYhM/w-d-xo.html
Hi Maggie! I definitely want to check it out. Love your reviews👍. I was going to ask a couple of questions. First one is are you going to do a review on Shindler's List in the future? The second one is doing something like on River Phoenix? My Own Private Idaho and Dogfight. Keep doing your reviews.
It's my favorite of Kurosawa's work, as well. There's certainly completion. Seven Samurai, Red Beard, High and Low, Throne of Blood, etc. However, the epic scope and just how personal this film feels puts this one at the very top for me.
very timely that you made this video, i was literally looking online for a blu-ray copy to purchase since this one is not available on Criterion Channel. You have one of the best movie YT channels, do you have a Letterbox'd account where you post reviews?
It doesn't really matter if someone technically says it "wrong", because it's even *pronounced differently in other Asian languages to begin with.* I speak *Vietnamese* , where that word is rendered *"loạn"* , with an "L / l" instead of an "R / r" sound. It's ultimately *all from a Chinese character* (亂 or 乱) meaning *"chaos" or "disorder".*
@@Em-sf6sr There's no such thing as "pedantic", which is just a word thrown around by vulnerable narcissists (the "I'm dumb and proud" kind) to justify not learning or correcting themselves.
Hi Deepfocuslens , after many years of being an avid film fan and viewer (and occasional reviewer, y'know, for my own interest and amusement) I'm now beginning to study film 'proper'. As in studying the language of film from as many aspects as possible, syntax, mise en scene, editing, cinematography, scene analysis and so on. I have my own personal tastes, knowledge from watching many films and am starting to build a reading list to refer to (I've recently acquired James Monaco's How To Read A Film, 2009 edition - it's pretty good, comprehensive, maybe a bit dated now and, a minor criticism of it would be I feel it's a touch 'scholarly' with a hint of 'elitist' in its approach. Still, it has much of what I need. Along side that I'm also reading a Ken Loach biography called 'Which Side Are You On?'. Very interesting). Anyway, after watching this video and hearing that you self taught in the field of film appreciation and analysis (plus, I might add, I'm a big fan of your channel and feel your observations, critiques and video essays are wonderfully honest, incisive and insightful) I was hoping, could you pass on some bits of advice and some tips for my endeavour into film studies. Not an intensive amount of information, of course, you have your life and work to attend to. But if there's anything you could share I would be supremely grateful. Many thanks, a DFL fan 😊
Ah that's wonderful to hear. Hmm I don't know if I have any great advice other than to do it because you love it. It can get a bit exhausting after a while, and it is easy to become jaded if your heart isn't in it. What I did originally as a kid was watch all of the films on the AFI Top 100 films list. It's not a great list, imo. But it covers a lot of bases of American film and allows you to dip your toes in. From there you get a feel for all kinds of interesting foreign films and movements and such depending on your interests. Maybe explore your favorite genres and really learn about their history, and see where you are taken from there. For scene structure and all that, I'd look into getting the book "Story" by Robert Mckee. It's a dry read, but it has tons of useful information on how scenes and stories are structured, with tons of examples from film. Great reference book, and also great if you're interesting in writing screenplays. But be warned, once you go down that path and start reading books like this, you can't turn back. The mysticism and romantic allure of film as entertainment will likely dissolve, and from then on you'll have a "pop the hood and see how things are working" mentality when watching movies. So be sure you're aware of that. Good luck, and thank you so much for your interest. :)
@@deepfocuslens Hi DFL, so, so sorry for my belated reply. I have a bad habit of putting things off and letting them dangle for a while if I don't do them in the immediate time around them. So, please, I hope my delay hasn't been construed as not being grateful for your message.... Speaking of which - Thank you!! Thank you so much, there is really a lot there in what you said that's eminently helpful and instructive. Thank you for taking the time to send such a thoughtful reply. Thanks for the McKee recommendation as well. Ever since watching Adaptation years ago and seeing how he was characterised (in an intriguing but fictional manner) I took a superficially dim view of the ethos and philosophies surrounding that kind of analysis and creativity, that he represented, it felt like another part of the 'machine', so to speak. So I rejected that stuff at that time but it was based on very little. So in turn I realise that's quite an insular, dismissive view to have (plus a view from younger, more naively maverick me lol) so after your reference to him I'm interested in welcoming what he has to say. Though, I get what you say about that particular book being a 'dry' read. Maybe so but it's all nourishment for the grey matter. And what you mentioned at the end there, about that potential for becoming jaded... I do get what you mean entirely about that. I'm feeling, in how to navigate through one's desire to study film yet to retain the affecting emotional power and romanticism of whichever film, films, that it's all about balance. It's important to intellectualise the meaning of films, individual or on a grander scale, how they to impart such incredible feeling and passion. But it's also paramount to find those many moments of transcendence and unfolding emotional mystery in film and connect to that. To let those qualities nourish and stimulate is the ultimate goal, I think. But that ever enduring curiosity one has about 'just how did that filmmaker/filmmakers/artist/artists do that?' and 'how does this art form work to generate and elicit such feeling?'... That curiosity is something I have and feel I must follow... Anyway, I'm beginning to witter and ramble so I shall end by saying thank you. Thank you for taking the time to answer my message, for the interesting comments and advice with and I look forward to more unique DFL reviews... Oh yes, I think the idea of studying a particular genre, the history of one and as much as that encompasses, that's a helpful and appealing idea. I was thinking, after watching parts of an old 50s Glenn Ford film Noir called Convicted the other night, I might pursue the Prison drama/thriller/horror etc. There's a lot of substance there haha. Many thanks, Alan. (p.s. Apologies for grammatical errors).
Kurosawa's "Ran" was the first ever Samurai film I saw during the fall of my last year in high school after I randomly bought a copy from a bookstore, and I became bedazzled and obsessed with that movie for months to the extent that my then journalism and creative writing teacher, a certain Ms. Alisa Hanrahan who all the boys had a crush on, appointed a kind of "tutor" for non-European Shakespearean adaptations.
I went through a Kurosawa phase a few years ago. Missed this one. Need to see it. Looks amazing. My favorites are Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Yojimbo, and Dreams.
'Ran' is my favourite film of all time. When I fist saw it as a 21 year old student, it completely changed my idea of what cinema could be. It is visually stunning, and the themes drawn from Shakespeare's King Lear are adapted seamlessly, with haunting music and a magical flow of chaos, order, violence and silence. The final image of the blind man somehow manages to convey the human condition more profoundly than anything I've seen. Amazing costume design and cinematography, incredibly poetic battle scenes and great performances especially from Nakadai, Harada, and Ikehata. In a mad world only the mad are sane. A true gem of a film.
I love it. Hidetora Ichimonji is more Lear than Lear.
Just watched Ran for the first time. Instantly my favorite Kurosawa. The burning of the Third Castle had me spellbound, such a haunting scene. Every director should have to shoot in black and white first like Kurosawa did so that when they finally graduate to color, they use it to maximum effect. And the beautiful noh style makeup on Hidetora and Kaede that make them seem so phantom like. Oh, and those sumptuous robes, the beautifully crafted armor. And all those real extras. At the risk of sounding like a boomer, they just don’t make them like this anymore.
No. They don't.
Except Godzilla Minus One, but that's it.
Kagemusha often gets overshadowed by Ran and Seven Samurai
Lady Kaede is a riveting yet horrifying character. I was so impressed by Mieko Harada's performance that I sought her ought in Japanese film and TV. Well I was disappointed by what I saw. Kurosawa clearly gave her a role of a lifetime.
RAN is one of my favourites, the 4K transfer is gorgeous. You can really feel Kurosawa's nihilism and depression through this film. Combine that with the fact that his painting style started to bleed into the way he made his films and you have one of the most beautifully grim movies ever made (on an epic, high budget scale no less).
what version is the 4k transfer available?
@@TheMobCultVideo Studio Canal version
@@Cosmic_Cretin Studio Canal is so good at remastering older movies!
Your reviews are far more interesting, unique, & spot on than the top TH-cam movie reviewers like Stuckmann, Jeremy Jahns, etc
Those two you mentioned don't even do proper reviews (anymore). Both of them just tell you what happens in the film and whether or not they liked it.
@@rippspeck Yeah pretty much. I did however like Stuckmann's old analysis/explained videos.
2 years later and stuckmann got even worse.. He's not honest in his reviews anymore. Jeremy Jahns is imo a lot more honest than stuckmann.. This female.. Btw a beautiful female is not just reviewing she does a whole lot more than just reviewing.
@@HILAL19564 She is educating us and help us enhance our perception in films. I love her, her wits are certainly what makes her so charming especially that she taught me and a lot of people how to appreciate film and its inner soul
Stuckmann’s a hack/sellout. His reviews are total garbage now. He doesn’t want to offend the filmmakers of a film he might dislike. 👎
Not a wasted word in your review... really clear minded analysis. The parallels and references you draw, really astute. Thank you !
Kurosawa was an avid reader of Dostoevsky and I think this actually shows more in this particular film than in his adaptation of The Idiot: the family structure is pretty much the same as in The Brothers Karamazov, with the father being volatile and tyrannical while the eldest son is weak, the second son is cunning and only the third son genuinely loves his father. The woman, who is pure of heart, and the blind adolescent are the redemptive figures, which is also very dostoevskian :)
My favorite of his is still Dreams. Something about it is so different from the rest of his work and so otherworldly and in my opinion it’s by far his best looking film. Would love to see you review more Kurosawa in the future.
Also absolutely dying for you to review Harakiri and Kwaidan if you ever revisit Kobayashi.
Dreams is gorgeous, I just can't believe how a blind person could make it. Amazing work.
Dreams is great. Especially the final act.
I see the entire film as the apocalypse, in a more poetic and humanistic sense. It feels like the end of humanity, no hope left in the world. It’s Kurosawa at his most pessimistic, and it’s one of my all time favourite films. I want it to be the last film I see in my life
One of my top 10 favorite movies of all time.
Agreed Ran is easily on the same level as Rashoman and Seven Samurai. Great review!
Thanks for this! I saw Ran shortly after it came to the US in 1985 and I walked out of that theater in shock, aware of what a towering masterpiece I'd seen. I've never been able to forget it. I own a copy and can watch it at home but it really needs the big screen and big sound to be appreciated to the max. I love Kurasawa's movies; this is my favorite. It may not be for some because it's so stark; but it's unforgettable.
One of korusawa's best films, rashomon is my personal favorite, i'd love to see you review a tarkovsky film one day
The Sacrifice (his last one) is my favorite.
Hey Maggie I liked your review
I can only reiterate what I've said before: I love what Kurosawa does with Shakespeare. It has its own flavor like a pork chop served rare but not too bloody …. you sink your teeth in and in an instant feel its juices flow through your veins. Much better, ironically, than what the British usually do with the Bard in cinema. (Twelfth Night 1998 = barf.)
Apparently Kurosawa storyboarded the entire film himself IN FULL WATERCOLOR, and if those storyboards still exist they're bound to be worth a fortune for their impact on film composition. Japan refused to submit "Ran" for the Oscars' Best Foreign-Language category, so his American peers in the Best Director category shooed him in for that one to compensate. Because they loved "Ran" that much.
please, do a review of tengoku to jigoku (english: High and Low)! This film by Kurosawa is so criminally underrated it hurts. I think the ending scene is absolutely terrifying, even more than RAN's ending.
Shichinin no Samurai, Yôjinbô, Rashômon. Fantastic movies prominently featuring the great Toshirô Mifune. My favourite though is Kagemusha (the dream scene is noteworthy). The lead actor Tatsuya Nakadai is also in Ran. Haven't seen Ran yet, so will definitely give it a go soon.
I watched Ran in the mid 1990s when it was broadcast on TV in England as part of a showing of world cinema classics. I remember the colours, the overwhelming scenes of battle. My TV was small, but Ran was nevertheless incredibly visceral and powerful. Now my TV is bigger, though isn't even a flat screen: it's an old monstrosity hooked up to stereo speakers and a dvd and vhs player [I like to keep the old ways alive]. I think I'll gain much more from Ran when I watch it for the second time: as I'm inspired to do from this review.
Looks like you might of color corrected this video, if you did please lay off the exposure. Or close a window or something. It's sort of distracting.
My favorite Kurosawa film, one of the all-time greatest
7:40 Very operatic & heightened 🎭🎨
It has been many years since I saw Ran, and you may inspire me to look at it again, in the best home video representation I can find. I remember the scene where the old ruler sits in his castle, shellshocked, as arrows fly past him from the warring parties trying to take power, and he realizes his attempts to forge unity have failed.
One historical note I remember about this one is that Ran made an unusually widespread (for the time) release of a non-English-language film in the U.S. It even played in my sizeable but not huge hometown of Flint, Michigan, for a short while (though I did not get the chance to see it then). At the Academy Awards that year, Kurosawa was nominated for best direction, and the interesting bit about that, I think, is that he aced out Steven Spielberg, whose The Color Purple had scored 11 other nominations (meaning that every other best picture nominee's director was also nominated, except for Spielberg). That was exactly 10 years after the same thing had happened to Spielberg for Jaws, where -- after directing the most commercially successful film in actual dollars to that point -- he was aced out by Federico Fellini (for Amarcord). It is hard to argue with either Fellini or Kurosawa ever being nominated (they deserved far more for their great careers), but it was interesting that Spielberg got left out twice, 10 years apart, after superlative achievements.
Nice shirt or blouse. Very 60's 70's like. Just need the neck scarf on you and Peter Bogdanovich will be thrilled
As always great review
I've only scene 7 Samurai a few times. I gotta catch-up. *Great review...now I wanna watch it, thanks!*
The 2016 4k restoration is currently only available on a UK Blu-ray. Many who saw the disc, me included, think the picture looks turquoise. You can see screen captures at DVD Beaver. There have been quite a few restorations in recent years that had an aqua-turquoise tint, such as War and Peace (on Criterion BD), Playtime (on Criterion's Complete Tati collection), etc. In film-to-digital transfers, someone has to do "color grading." If this person's judgment is not optimal, there goes the accuracy of the colors. This issue has become a big concern to film fans. Movies shot digitally have no such problem, because all color info is stored digitally already and no change is needed. But with old films, which are analog, transferring them to digital requires color conversion done by humans.
whenever i had a job interview scheduled, i would begin to sabotage myself bcuz of neurocistic obssession and fear and etc. what i found helped me was watching kurosawa's "ran" movie beforehand.
there isnt anything in life as anxiety-ridden as this movie, so i sailed through the interviews. whenever i watched this movie before an interview, i got the job.
6:04, this is a tad irrelevant but when you said ‘into’ an Disneyland ad began playing saying ‘the magic is calling you’. I just found that kind of funny, don’t know why. Just thought I’d tell ya.
One of my top five movies. Probably Kurosawa's best.
Good movie good review, a true classic 👍🏾
It's been a long time since I seen this film. I may rewatch it now.
Saburo tried to warn his father Hidetora.
Great review! Please do some on Sion Sono’s movies. I think you’ll get a real kick out of them!!
Love Exposure
I love Sion Sono, but I think Maggie will find him too over the top.
Richard Santanna I don’t think she will! They’re surrealistic and have enough ideas for her to chew on!!!
Richard Santanna plus I don’t think I’ve ever met at least one cinephile out there who hasn’t loved at least one of his movies!!
Kurosawa is my fav director.
Nice review. Enjoyed it.
R.I.P. Akira Kurosawa
Great review
Own it on BD
@8:35: The actor who plays Hidetora is Tatsuya Nakadai, is has always been the go-to in Japanese cinema for making facial expressions that scream catatonic madness, which was definitive in "The Sword of Doom" (1966).
Here he is now: th-cam.com/video/kfzLeFuq2jM/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/1Qc_lyWnYhM/w-d-xo.html
I'd put RAN in Kurosawa's top 5 films. Even though it's nihilistic and depressing there's a powerful beauty to it.
Hi Maggie! I definitely want to check it out. Love your reviews👍. I was going to ask a couple of questions. First one is are you going to do a review on Shindler's List in the future? The second one is doing something like on River Phoenix? My Own Private Idaho and Dogfight. Keep doing your reviews.
Atom Egoyan's The Adjuster is a movie I would you to review. That or Exotica.
have you seen the movie akira made before Ran Kagemusha it's also fantastic. I Think I might like it more than Ran.
It's my favorite of Kurosawa's work, as well. There's certainly completion. Seven Samurai, Red Beard, High and Low, Throne of Blood, etc. However, the epic scope and just how personal this film feels puts this one at the very top for me.
I’m not sure if this is true for anyone else, but the auto-captions on this video are totally incoherent.
very timely that you made this video, i was literally looking online for a blu-ray copy to purchase since this one is not available on Criterion Channel.
You have one of the best movie YT channels, do you have a Letterbox'd account where you post reviews?
I just watched this fairly recently its a great film i havent seen that many Kurosawa films but id love to see more
Have you reviewed Leaving Las Vegas?
It's pronounced Rah-N
W h o
C a r e s
Emily well its a Japanese word so they determine how its pronounced, don’t be ignorant
No need to be pedantic tho. We all know what she's talking about
It doesn't really matter if someone technically says it "wrong", because it's even *pronounced differently in other Asian languages to begin with.* I speak *Vietnamese* , where that word is rendered *"loạn"* , with an "L / l" instead of an "R / r" sound.
It's ultimately *all from a Chinese character* (亂 or 乱) meaning *"chaos" or "disorder".*
@@Em-sf6sr There's no such thing as "pedantic", which is just a word thrown around by vulnerable narcissists (the "I'm dumb and proud" kind) to justify not learning or correcting themselves.
wow please do more Kurosawa
Hi Deepfocuslens , after many years of being an avid film fan and viewer (and occasional reviewer, y'know, for my own interest and amusement) I'm now beginning to study film 'proper'. As in studying the language of film from as many aspects as possible, syntax, mise en scene, editing, cinematography, scene analysis and so on. I have my own personal tastes, knowledge from watching many films and am starting to build a reading list to refer to (I've recently acquired James Monaco's How To Read A Film, 2009 edition - it's pretty good, comprehensive, maybe a bit dated now and, a minor criticism of it would be I feel it's a touch 'scholarly' with a hint of 'elitist' in its approach. Still, it has much of what I need. Along side that I'm also reading a Ken Loach biography called 'Which Side Are You On?'. Very interesting).
Anyway, after watching this video and hearing that you self taught in the field of film appreciation and analysis (plus, I might add, I'm a big fan of your channel and feel your observations, critiques and video essays are wonderfully honest, incisive and insightful) I was hoping, could you pass on some bits of advice and some tips for my endeavour into film studies. Not an intensive amount of information, of course, you have your life and work to attend to. But if there's anything you could share I would be supremely grateful.
Many thanks, a DFL fan 😊
Ah that's wonderful to hear. Hmm I don't know if I have any great advice other than to do it because you love it. It can get a bit exhausting after a while, and it is easy to become jaded if your heart isn't in it. What I did originally as a kid was watch all of the films on the AFI Top 100 films list. It's not a great list, imo. But it covers a lot of bases of American film and allows you to dip your toes in. From there you get a feel for all kinds of interesting foreign films and movements and such depending on your interests. Maybe explore your favorite genres and really learn about their history, and see where you are taken from there. For scene structure and all that, I'd look into getting the book "Story" by Robert Mckee. It's a dry read, but it has tons of useful information on how scenes and stories are structured, with tons of examples from film. Great reference book, and also great if you're interesting in writing screenplays. But be warned, once you go down that path and start reading books like this, you can't turn back. The mysticism and romantic allure of film as entertainment will likely dissolve, and from then on you'll have a "pop the hood and see how things are working" mentality when watching movies. So be sure you're aware of that. Good luck, and thank you so much for your interest. :)
@@deepfocuslens Hi DFL, so, so sorry for my belated reply. I have a bad habit of putting things off and letting them dangle for a while if I don't do them in the immediate time around them. So, please, I hope my delay hasn't been construed as not being grateful for your message....
Speaking of which - Thank you!! Thank you so much, there is really a lot there in what you said that's eminently helpful and instructive. Thank you for taking the time to send such a thoughtful reply.
Thanks for the McKee recommendation as well. Ever since watching Adaptation years ago and seeing how he was characterised (in an intriguing but fictional manner) I took a superficially dim view of the ethos and philosophies surrounding that kind of analysis and creativity, that he represented, it felt like another part of the 'machine', so to speak. So I rejected that stuff at that time but it was based on very little. So in turn I realise that's quite an insular, dismissive view to have (plus a view from younger, more naively maverick me lol) so after your reference to him I'm interested in welcoming what he has to say. Though, I get what you say about that particular book being a 'dry' read. Maybe so but it's all nourishment for the grey matter.
And what you mentioned at the end there, about that potential for becoming jaded... I do get what you mean entirely about that. I'm feeling, in how to navigate through one's desire to study film yet to retain the affecting emotional power and romanticism of whichever film, films, that it's all about balance. It's important to intellectualise the meaning of films, individual or on a grander scale, how they to impart such incredible feeling and passion. But it's also paramount to find those many moments of transcendence and unfolding emotional mystery in film and connect to that. To let those qualities nourish and stimulate is the ultimate goal, I think. But that ever enduring curiosity one has about 'just how did that filmmaker/filmmakers/artist/artists do that?' and 'how does this art form work to generate and elicit such feeling?'... That curiosity is something I have and feel I must follow...
Anyway, I'm beginning to witter and ramble so I shall end by saying thank you. Thank you for taking the time to answer my message, for the interesting comments and advice with and I look forward to more unique DFL reviews...
Oh yes, I think the idea of studying a particular genre, the history of one and as much as that encompasses, that's a helpful and appealing idea. I was thinking, after watching parts of an old 50s Glenn Ford film Noir called Convicted the other night, I might pursue the Prison drama/thriller/horror etc. There's a lot of substance there haha.
Many thanks, Alan. (p.s. Apologies for grammatical errors).
Dersu Uzala is great.)
arrrr murder farts 😁🤘
VERY SHAKESPEAREAN
Have you seen Mishima Life in 4 chapters ?would be curious to see your thoughts on that film.
Man, I really wanna see that movie.
@@richardsantanna5398 It's available on TH-cam by various posters!
@@Suite_annamite
My God! Thank you! I'll watch it this weekend.
Westerns are so clueless. Ran is about Karma.
What goes around, comes around.
Wow. So astute. Such insight.
Lol. It's not as if guilt and retribution weren't mentioned as themes in her video or anything.
Kurosawa's "Ran" was the first ever Samurai film I saw during the fall of my last year in high school after I randomly bought a copy from a bookstore, and I became bedazzled and obsessed with that movie for months to the extent that my then journalism and creative writing teacher, a certain Ms. Alisa Hanrahan who all the boys had a crush on, appointed a kind of "tutor" for non-European Shakespearean adaptations.
Totally off-topic, but I really like the clothes.
I went through a Kurosawa phase a few years ago. Missed this one. Need to see it. Looks amazing. My favorites are Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Yojimbo, and Dreams.