One of the amazing things about 'Seven Samurai' is that there are a lot of characters. And considering you have so many, and they all have shaved heads, and you've got good guys and bad guys and peasants, you get to understand a lot of them without too much being said.
'Ikiru' is existential but with a lot of tenderness.
Kurosawa is the sensei, the Shakespeare, of filmmaking.
Even if I were to try to imitate Kurosawa I know that it's absolutely impossible. That era of film was just something else, including the actors. Everything about that era was on a completely different level.
I think the dictator director is based upon stories from the past. I don't think anyone would put up with it now. There are a lot of people on a film set with egos. So, to be completely authoritarian, you'd probably have to have a reputation like Kurosowa or somebody to get away with it.
I am inspired by both Japanese Samurai films, in particular the films of Kurosawa, and how they share the spirit of American Westerns, with the influences running in both directions, and including the 'Spaghetti Westerns' and films of Sam Peckinpah.
The term 'giant' is used too often to describe artists. But in the case of Akira Kurosawa, we have one of the rare instances where the term fits.
I was in Japan, and my assistant director had worked with Kurosawa. I used quite of number of Kurosawa's crew.
Kurosawa is my hero, and I've taught courses on his films, and I love what he does, and 'Rashomon' is, I think, his second greatest film after 'Ikiru.'
The expected vertical line of Ikiru's narrative breaks when Kurosawa does a flash-forward in the middle of the film.
Kurosawa was truly inventive.
Most directors have one masterpiece by which they are known. Kurosawa has at least eight or nine.
I was influenced by European movies, old Fellini, old Kurosawa - any sort of foreign film.
I think Kurosawa was one of the first storytelling geniuses who began to change the narrative structure of films.
I am actually a 'Seven Samurai' fan.
I'm a huge fan of Akira Kurosawa, a big Hitchcock fan.
I want to be able to make westerns like Akira Kurosawa makes westerns.
I'm a huge lover of 'Seven Samurai' and anything Kurosawa ever did. The comedic work out of Japan in terms of martial arts movies, some of them are hilarious.
