Japan / USSR,
1975, 137 min
Shown in 1976 / 1999
CREDITS
- dir
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Akira Kurosawa
- scr
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Akira Kurosawa, Yuri Nagibin
- cam
-
Asakadru Nakai
- cast
-
Maxim Munzuk, Yuri Solomin
- source
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Kino International, 333 West 39th Street, Suite 503, New York, NY 10018. FAX: 212-714-0871
-
COMMENTS
Shown as part of the Indelible Images series in 1999, selected by Peter Coyote.
OTHER
Awarded the 1976 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, Dersu Uzala was the harbinger of a new era in Akira Kurosawa’s career—one marked by works of unassuming beauty and compassion. Setting aside the samurai and police milieu that had served him so well for 20 years, the 60-year-old director turned instead to a modest and meditative tale: the real-life exploits of military surveyor Vladimir Arseniev. En route to a remote region of Siberia, Arseniev’s company is joined by Dersu Uzala, a simple hunter and woodsman who becomes their guide. As they trek across the countryside, Arseniev (Yuri Salomin) realizes that there is far more to learn from Dersu than mere outdoor survival skills. Free of the petty concerns of contemporary society, Dersu lives in perfect harmony with the natural world. Rarely has Kurosawa presented a character with the unabashed affection he reserves for Dersu. From his first moments on screen, Dersu (Maxim Munzuk) is someone to be admired and emulated. Intent on capturing Dersu’s affable nobility, Kurosawa allows his film to meander casually from one incident to another. This new, leisurely approach to storytelling is accompanied by a shift in Kurosawa’s visual approach. Directed with a painter’s eye for light and color composition, Dersu Uzala is filled with dramatically striking imagery: A simple forest scene becomes an impressionistic celebration of gold and red, the Siberian steppes are an ominous landscape awash in blue.
—Doug Jones
FACTOID #73
James Wong Howe was the first cinematographer to receive a tribute at the Festival, October 19, 1974. The legendary lenser photographed such classics as The Thin Man, Pursued, Sweet Smell of Success and Hud.
