It
is a little ironic the notoriously camera-shy Chris Marker made several
documentaries about other filmmakers, but at least he understood who was more
interesting. Although Marker’s critical cult has won new adherents in recent
years, there is no comparison between him and Akira Kurosawa, especially in
1985 when the Japanese auteur was helming his last great epic masterpiece, Ran. Marker tries to keep out of
Kurosawa’s shots as he observes the master at work in A.K. (clip
here),
which opens at Film Forum this Friday, a week ahead of Ran.
Kurosawa’s
iconic hat and sunglasses are instantly recognizable. Just seeing him rehearse
the heck out of the nearly as legendary Tatsuya Nakadai is almost worth the price
of admission—and watch we shall. While there is a fair amount of narration, it
is mostly ruminative in nature, rather than descriptive or informative. It
seems Marker was justly in awe of Kurosawa and finds every grand working method
to be a revelation.
Those
looking for “making of” details might be disappointed, but there are a few tantalizing
glimpses of a scene that was agonizingly hand-crafted, only to be scrapped in
the editing room. All that grass painted gold went for naught Marker’s narrator
tells us.
Marker
never even dares approach Kurosawa, Nakadai, or the longtime collaborators he
dubs “the Seven Samurai,” instead just showing them plugging away on the set. Granted,
talking head interviews are not so Markerian. Perhaps he was also worried he
would start kowtowing and chanting “I’m not worthy,” like Wayne and Garth.
However, the upshot is we do not get any final words of a summation from Toho
Studios’ renowned sound technician Fumio Yanoguchi, who passed away shortly
after A.K. wrapped filming.
