There's something so unsettling about this film, and it's not just that it's the first Kurosawa film we've seen in color. It's the color itself. Ultra-saturated, flat, convervatively-framed. Music that's syrupy...it sounds like the "feel-good" music in a million "foreign films" that folks go to in droves to the Music Box, inoffensive but just "different" enough to feel like exotica. But really, it's the flatness of the picture, the sudden two-dimensionality. I can't believe it's JUST the color. It's the same cold-water rush of horror I got when watching Herzog's Where the Green Ants Dream. Feeling like the best times were behind, and only slight films were ahead.
(this, of course, is not true in the case of either director, but impressions are impressions)
Credit must be given to Kurosawa for dusting himself off after so many letdowns and disappointments, but really, the crazy man walking through the rainbow while pretending to be a train...rather insufferable.
And honestly, WHO WAS THIS FOR? This was supposed to be "light entertainment?" IT'S A CITY OF MENTALLY HANDICAPPED PEOPLE, LIVING IN GARBAGE. Really? You thought this was going to be a big hit? Was this sort of movie all the rage in 1970? I must've missed that.
I want to believe, though, so I'll keep with it.
Red Beard, on the other hand, is beyond reproach. Like Seven Samurai, it's hard to believe how effortlessly three hours go by, or how invested you get in characters with "literary" character traits. Maybe not a life-changer like Ikiru, and certainly not as innovative in terms of structure, but one to take with you on your journey.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment