This summer, TIFF Cinematheque will bid farewell to their old home within the AGO and move to their swanky new digs of King St. West. Before that, however, they will look back to one of their first ever director retrospectives — arguably one of the largest programs in their history — celebrating seminal Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Details on screening dates and ticket information can be found here. I recently spoke with James Quandt, Senior Programmer for TIFF Cinematheque about the labour of love that is assembling a Kurosawa retrospective for a second time in the city of Toronto.
As mentioned, this is, in fact, the second time that TIFF Cinematheque has hosted an Akira Kurosawa retrospective (the first being 20 years prior) and Quandt has been involved in both instances. “I had been programming Japanese cinema at the Harbourfront prior [to taking on a position with TIFF] and it struck me as one of the first series I wanted to do,” he says of being given an outlet to initially showcase work of this magnitude in Toronto. The success of the initial run propelled Cinematheque to become a hub for Japanese cinema with eventual retrospectives from legendary directors such as Ozu and Mizoguchi being showcased to Toronto audiences.
So, for the uninitiated or the vaguely familiar, what can this summer retrospective hold? Well, it is an opportunity to connect the dots from some highly regarded western directors (Spielberg, Lucas) back to their influence, Akira Kurosawa. “[Kurosawa's] influence exists unknowingly to filmmakers now,” says Quandt as the theory and practices that Kurosawa created have been passed down through at least three generations of filmmakers, but he also notes the joy that can be found in seeing the original work on screen. Additionally, Quandt addresses the criticism by scholars and critics alike of Kurosawa’s work as “limited.”
“Lots of it has to do with stereotyping,” he says, “Akira Kurosawa is known as an action director, but he is much more versatile than that.” To that effect Quandt references the dramatic work, literary adaptions, and film noir genres of films Kurosawa directed which equals the amount of “samurai” films produced. What then are fans of Seven Samurai, Ran, or Yojimbo and Sanjuro to do to expand their pallet of Kurosawa’s work?
While the summer program “offers a great opportunity to view the body of work,” Quandt notes one of Kurosawa’s earlier works, No Regrets For Our Youth, or his adaptation of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot as great starting points. Similarly he notes film historian Peter Cowie’s suggestion of Red Beard as a proper starting point for the somewhat familiar fan of Kurosawa.
Before closing our conversation I have to ask Quandt about the trials and tribulations of securing prints for all the films in this summer’s retrospective, mildly anticipating a tale (or two) of great struggle in locating a particular print. Quandt laughs and calls out what I am searching for, but he says, “It was really easy, especially thanks to Janus,” the American film studio who owns the rights to a number of Kurosawa films and has lovingly restored prints. While I admit to being somewhat let down, after our conversation I found myself ecstatic upon hearing of the ease in assembling this program as it is a testament to the long-standing appeal of all of Akira Kurosawa’s work, but that younger generations will get to enjoy this body of material for years to come.
