Style of “the Pictorial Shakespeare”—— Auteur Theory Applying to Akira Kurosawa’s Work

Authors

  • Shindy Lan The University of Manchester

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/ret.v1i4.340

Abstract

By investigating the cinematography and thematic concerns of Akira Kurosawa’s work under the auteurist criteria, it can be argued that Kurosawa is an auteur whose work possesses three distinctive authorial signatures: the active involvement of nature, the strong sense of stage-performance, the editing on movement; and the consistent visual style has corresponding meaning concerning his personal experience and socio-historical circumstances.

Keywords:

Movies; Auteur theory; Cinematography; Expressionism

References

[1] Bazin, Andre (1984) La Politique des Auteurs, translated in The New Wave, p 142.

[2] Buscombe, Edward (1973) Ideas of Authorship, pp. 75-81.

[3] Kael, Pauline (1963) Circles and Squares. Film Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp.12-26.

[4] Kurosawa, Akira (1983) Something like an autobiography. New York: Vintage Books.

[5] McDonald, Kieko I. (1994) Japanese Classical Theatre, London: Associated University Press.

[6] Richie, Donald (1984) The films of Akira Kurosawa. Berkeley: The University of California Press.

[7] Sarris, Andrew (1962–1963). Notes on the Auteur Theory in 1962. Film Culture.

[8] Truffaut, François (1955) Ali Baba et la “Politique des Auteurs”, Cahiers du cinéma.

[9] Yoshimoto, Mitsuhiro (2000) Kurosawa: film studies and Japanese cinema, Durham, N.C: Duke University Press.

[10] Wollen, Peter (1972) Signs and meaning in the cinema, 3rd Edition, London: Secker and Warburg.

[11] Anaheimu (2013) “Akira Kurosawa 100th Anniversary Memorial Tribute” [Accessed 8th December 2017].

[12] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErelcWcNelQ

[13] Jobs (2013) “A message from Akira Kurosawa” [Accessed 10th December].

[14] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2xOiWldGKI&t=3789s

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Issue

Vol. 1 , Iss. 4 (October 2018)

Article Type

Review Article

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