Rashomon's jubilee
On August 26, 1950, Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashômon 羅 生 門 (Rashomon)" was released in Japanese theaters. We have already briefly touched on this film, when under the heading "Years and Movies" we gave an overview of the best films of world cinema of 1950. Today, in connection with the 70th anniversary of this film masterpiece, we want to tell you about this film in a little more detail.
We do not have exact facts, but many critics argue that "Rashomon" was received more than coolly by Japanese film audiences and film critics. The main complaint made by critics was that Kurosawa in this film was too loose with the literary works that served as the basis for the script of the picture.
The script "Rashomon" was based on the story of the classic of Japanese literature Ryunosuke Akutagawa "In a Grove", published in 1921. At the same time, the title of the film is the title of a completely different story by Akutagawa. In turn, Akutagawa himself took the word "rashômon 羅 生 門" for his story from the title of one of the plays of the "no" theater, popular in medieval Japan.
A year after the release of "Rashomon" on the screens, the evaluation of it by viewers and film critics has changed dramatically. The reason for the change was the furor created by the film at the Venice Film Festival, where it received the Golden Lion. Moreover, among the 30 nominees for this award that year included such masterpieces as "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Elia Kazan, "Ace in the Hole" by Billy Wilder, "Journal d'un curé de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest) "by Robert Bresson and others.
Interestingly, the nomination of Kurosawa's film at the Venice Film Festival was initiated by the teacher of Italian at the University of Tokyo, Giuliana Stramigioli. The Daiei Motion Picture Company itself, where the film was filmed, and even the Japanese government, objected to the participation of "Rashomon" in the film festival and offered in return Yasujirô Ozu's film "Munekata kyôdai 宗 方 姉妹 (The Munekata Sisters)" the same Daiei Motion Picture studio.
There are several reasons for this. First, Yasujirô Ozu was by that time more famous than Kurosawa. And, secondly, the head of the Daiei Motion Picture Company, not only was completely inexperienced, but also did not understand anything in the film. He even banned mentioning of the film studio in the credits. But after the triumph of the picture at the Venice Film Festival, it seems like he "regained his sight" and corrected his mistake. However, he was not the only one so dull. It is known that before filming began, three of Kurosawa's assistants approached him with a request to explain who was right after all. Kurosawa replied that "Rashomon" is a reflection of life, and life does not always have a clear meaning.
Later, in his memoir "Something Like an Autobiography" Kurosawa said that he gave such an explanation to his assistants: «Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. The script portrays such human beings the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel better than they really are. It even shows this sinful need for flattering falsehood going beyond the grave - even the character who dies cannot give up his lies when he speaks to the living through a medium. Egoism is a sin the human being carries with him from birth; it is the most difficult to redeem. This film is a strange picture scroll that is unrolled and displayed by the ego.»
After the success at the Venice Film Festival, "Rashomon" hit the screens of American cinemas and, thanks to this, came to the attention of the American Film Academy. In early 1952, Kurosawa's film was awarded the honorary Oscar "as the most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951". That is, it was not even clear in what category to include it. It is believed that this particular film prompted American film academics to enter the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
In 1953, "Rashomon" was nominated for the British BAFTA Award for Best Film from any Source. But this British award by the decision of British film academics went to the British film "The Sound Barrier" by David Lean. Although, as in the case we described with the film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", the film "The Sound Barrier" was recognized as the winner in the nomination for Best British Film as well. Well, a kind of "consolation" for "Rashomon" was more than a worthy company of relative "losers": "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Elia Kazan, "Limelight" by Charles Chaplin, "Los olvidados" by Luis Bunuel, "Miracolo a Milano ( Miracle in Milan)" Vittorio De Sica," Singing in the Rain "by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly and others.
"Rashomon" was highly praised by professional film critics, and almost all of them. Roger Ebert, who gave the film a maximum 4 stars and included it in his list of "Great Movies", wrote in his review: "The genius of "Rashomon" is that all of the flashbacks are both true and false. True, in that they present an accurate portrait of what each witness thinks happened. False, because as Kurosawa observes in his autobiography, "Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. "Rashomon" (1950) struck the world of film like a thunderbolt. And opened the world of Japanese cinema to the Western world."
Another well-known American film critic James Berardinelli, who also rated the film with a maximum of 4 stars, expressed approximately the same spirit: "In the end, we are left recognizing only one thing: that there is no such thing as an objective truth. It is a grail to be sought after, but which will never be found, only approximated. Kurosawa's most brilliant move in Rashomon is never to reveal what really happened. We are left to make our own deductions. Every time I watch the film, I come away with a slightly different opinion of what transpired in the woods. But not knowing remains a source of fascination, not one of frustration, and therein lies Kurosawa's greatest achievement."
Directors such as Federico Fellini, Woody Allen, Satyajit Rai, Ingmar Bergman and John Houston have named this film as one of their favorite films.
"Citizen Kane" fans love to claim that Akira Kurosawa made his "Rashomon" influenced by Orson Welles's film. But in reality, Kurosawa saw "Citizen Kane" only a few years after "Rashomon's" release on the international movie screen.
72% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film "Rashomon" ratings from 8 to 10. Taking this into account and the above, the rating of Akira Kurosawa's film "Rashomon" by FilmGourmand was 9.564, which secured it 71st place in the Golden Thousand.
