Anniversary of The Turmoil
On May 25, 1985, Akira Kurosawa's film, which original title in Japanese is "乱", premiered in Tokyo. This word sounds like "ran". And it is translated into English as "turmoil", "chaos", "distemper", "riot" etc. And the film distributors of several countries (Hungary, Lithuania) did just that: they released it on the screens of cinemas in their countries under one of these names. Which, in my opinion, is quite logical and justified. But the film distributors of most countries have released this film on the screens of their cinemas under the Japanese title. But this, in my opinion, is both illogical and unjustified. After all, the titles of other films, for the most part, are faithfully translated into other languages. For example, "Red Beard", not "Akahige". And "High and Low", not "Tengoku to Jigoku". But why bother now, when for almost 40 years we have known this picture as "Ran".
In the 60s, the famous English actor Peter O'Toole, who was delighted with Akira Kurosawa's film "Kumonosu-jô 蜘蛛巣城 (Throne of Blood)", based on Shakespeare's "Macbeth", suggested that the Japanese director make a film based on another great Shakespeare tragedy - "King Lear". Kurosawa refused.
In the mid-70s, Akira Kurosawa conceived a film, the plot of which was supposed to be based on the legends of the feudal lord of the XVI century, Mori Motonari, the ruler of Aki province, on the territory of which modern Hiroshima is located. However, apparently, O'Toole's proposal was firmly stuck in the brain of the great director, and, as a result, gradually in the process of working on the script, the plot lines and images of Shakespeare's tragedy "King Lear", in particular, the image of the fool Keami, penetrated into it. This penetration was facilitated by the fact that Mori Motonari had three sons.
However, the script of the film "Ran" has been waiting in the wings for 7 years. During this time, Akira Kurosawa drew almost every frame of the film. One of the reasons for such a long pause between the birth of the idea and its implementation was the banal lack of financial resources. In Japanese cinema circles, since the mid-60s, the opinion about a strong Westernization in Kurosawa's work has been strengthened, and as a result, the director could not find funds for shooting a film at home. French producer Serge Silberman came to the aid of Kurosawa, who invested his own money in Kurosawa's project. That is why very often the film "Ran" qualifies as a joint French-Japanese film.
In parallel with the preparatory work for the future film "Ran", Akira Kurosawa shot the films "Dersu Uzala", "Kagemusha 影武者" and only then decided to shoot "Ran", although by the time of filming he was already 76 years old and he was almost blind.
The budget of the film "Ran" was $ 11 million, and this made the picture the most expensive picture of Japanese cinema at the time of its creation. Having collected more than $ 19 million at the global box office, the film " Ran " fully recouped its production, and Kurosawa's obligations to Serge Silberman were fulfilled.
For the filming of the picture, about one and a half thousand costumes were hand-sewn according to the sketches of Kurosawa himself. The process of tailoring the costumes took 2 years.
An example of a professional attitude to the case: during the filming of Akira Kurosawa, his 39-year-old wife died. Kurosawa left the set for only one day, to attend the funeral.
The premiere of the film "Ran" took place in Tokyo on May 25, 1985. A week later, Akira Kurosawa's film was presented at the First International Film Festival in Tokyo, but it turned out to be without a single award. Apparently, the prejudice of Japanese filmmakers against the internationally recognized classic of Japanese cinema has affected.
The following year, the film "Ran" was nominated for the American Golden Globe in the category of Best Foreign Film, but this award went to the Argentine film "La historia oficial (The Official Story)". A little later, the film "Ran" received 4 Academy Award nominations from the American Film Academy, including a nomination for Best Director. For 76-year-old Akira Kurosawa, this was the first Oscar nomination as a director in his life, despite the fact that "Ran" became the 29th film in his creative biography. But the prize was awarded to Sidney Pollack for directing the film "Out of Africa".
The fate of the film "Ran" was more successful at European festival venues. The film received a nomination for the French Cesar Award in the category of Best Foreign Film, but lost the victory in this category to Woody Allen's film "The Purple Rose of Cairo". But the Danish Film Academy awarded its Bodil Award to Kurosawa's film, the David di Donatello Award to Akira Kurosawa as the Best Director was awarded by the Italian Film Academy, the BAFTA Award as the Best Foreign Film was awarded to the film by the British Film Academy.
After such recognition abroad, the Japanese Film Academy also awarded the film "Ran" seven nominations and a victory in three of them. But there were still no major nominations among the nominations, only technical and secondary ones.
But from professional film critics, the film "Ran" by Akira Kurosawa received exceptionally rave reviews. The guru of American film criticism, Roger Ebert, awarded the film 4 stars out of 4 possible and included it in his list of "Great Movies". Ebert devoted two reviews to Kurosawa's film, one - immediately after the film was released on the screens of American cinemas, in 1985. The second one - 15 years later, in 2000. In the second review, Ebert described his understanding of this film, which, perhaps, becomes clear, and even then, not to everyone, and not from the first time:
"Kurosawa has not told the story of a great man whose sin of pride drives him mad, but the story of a man who has waged war all his life, hopes to impose peace in his old age and unleashes even greater turmoil. There are parallels not only with kings but also with filmmakers, who like royalty must enforce their vision in a world seething with jealousy, finance, intrigue, vanity and greed."
The authoritative Russian film critic Sergey Kudryavtsev gave the film 8.5 points on a 10-point scale and noted in his review:
"While preserving, in fact, the main plot of William Shakespeare, the Japanese director achieves an amazing national reinterpretation of the tragedy, and at the same time it does not lose its universal sound. Akira Kurosawa, a master of epic and battle scenes, violent and outrageous in temperament, condemning violence and humane in his pathos, shows himself with great strength and inspiration in this film, despite the advanced age of seventy-five. ...And there is the highest justice in the fact that the unique master of cinema, who met prejudice and misunderstanding at home, still received support and recognition far beyond its borders. This once again confirms that the art of Akira Kurosawa has long belonged to the whole world."
Akira Kurosawa's film "Ran" was equally highly appreciated by modern moviegoers. 73% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users rated the film from 8 to 10, and 23% of users gave the film the highest score of 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, Akira Kurosawa's film "Ran" rating according to FilmGourmand was 10,251, which allowed it to take 29th Rank in the Golden Thousand. Among the films released in theaters in 1985, these are the highest figures, which allows us to consider Akira Kurosawa's film "Ran" the best film in world cinema in 1985.
