SUBLIME CINEMA #640 - DERSU UZALA
By the time Kurosawa was offered Dersu Uzala by Soviet studio Mosfilm , he had just attempted suicide after a short-lived, failed Hollywood career and a string of unsuccessful films. This movie was made during that period of shakiness, funding droughts, and deep depression for the director, whom Darryl Zanuck had recently declared mentally ill.
It turned into one of Kurosawa’s best and most self-reflective works, and it’s his only 70mm outing. The film is shot entirely on eye level, keeping you oriented as a spectator to an ever encroaching vastness of the Taiga - where the film was made, under grueling conditions.
I’ve never seen a good transfer of this, and I’m not sure one exists; this is almost a forgotten Kurosawa but deserves a solid restoration.
Guidance🕯
A mixed media piece with colored inks, poster color and colored pencils!
