|
Rashoman
I saw this in a 35mm print which was a great treat, even if it was a very soft very dirty print that looked to my very untrained eyes to be from a fourth or later generation nitrate dupe negative and has been in use for forty years (tons of consistent projector wear on the print as well as consistenly appearing hairs and other annoying bits that detracted from the overall theatrical experience).
The film itself was an absolute marvel. Kurasawa's use of black and white was extremely expressive, the four perspectives on the same scene never bored and always remained fascinating. What I found most disturbing was the treatment of the woman, ALL of the male perspectives assumed that since she was raped she somehow consented and be looked down on because she was raped. Including the rapist in one perspective! Her own perspective is so traumatized that the only thing I'm sure of is an enormous sense of anger and despair when her husband blamed her for being raped that emanated from her in her perspective. alternating from the extremes of the Bandits to the Woodcutters versions of the fights at the beginning and end was quite wonderous. I think the actual fight was somewhere in between, the prowess was not what the bandit displayed, but it was not as farcical (though probalby just as frantic) as the woodcutter saw. I think the woodcutters perspective of the battle was jaded by the fact that he seemed to be a very timid and slinking person, and probably hid his eyes whenever the battle looked frantic, so he just filled in the bits that he didn't see with silliness. Since the samurai didn't claim a great battle occured it seems that one, he's ashamed he was defeated, and two he doesn't want to lie more than necessary and describing the battle would be too much lieing because it was not a glorious thing, closer to the woodcutters version than the bandit's in my opinion.
A phenomenal film that I'm still digesting, well deserving of its place on this list.
Adam
|