Classic Corner: Dersu Uzala

I wrote about a Kurosawa classic

I wrote about perhaps the actual no-joke best film of all time for Crooked Marquee: Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala, which has just had its fiftieth anniversary. A preview:

In the early 1970s, Akira Kurosawa was at a low point. After the end of his exclusive contract with Toho Studios in 1966, he went to Hollywood: first working on Runaway Train for Embassy Pictures, which was postponed several times before being shelved (for the time being, anyway), and then spending two years in pre-production on 20th Century Fox’s war epic Tora! Tora! Tora!, only to be fired two weeks into shooting. On his return to Japan, he had to mortgage his house to finance Dodes’ka-den (1970), a commercial failure that met a cool reception at home and a mixed one abroad. In 1971, Kurosawa attempted to take his own life. By the end of the decade, George Lucas – having borrowed from Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress while making a little picture called Star Wars – and Francis Ford Coppola would wield their newfound power to ensure Kurosawa got back to directing big, beautiful and rightfully acclaimed historical epics. But in 1971, it seemed probable that he would never make another movie.

You can read the whole thing here! Check it out.

icymi

I wrote about the Japanese horror film Infection for Certified Forgotten. Gift link here!

I took a close look at the opening shots of Uncle Buck for MUBI Notebook.

Friday Film Showcased is back! Listen to the season 2 preview to get ready for all that’s to come.

and a classic from the archives…

Saint Lady Bird of Sacramento” for The Sundae, published in 2019.

parting recs

Watch: The new season of South Park. Real classic shit so far.

Listen: Hayley Williams’s new album/not-album, Ego/seventeen singles or so. Breaks new ground on the “moved back to my hometown and am depressed” record by taking place while extremely successful. In handy playlist form:

Check out otherwise: Blueberry!!!

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