contents

!background 5

trailer 5 key players' biographies 8

reading seven samurai 7 director as auteur 13

narrative & form 17

genre in japanese & • the villagers 27

american cinema 18 • the bandits 28

narrative structure 20 • a note on types 29

character 21 narrative shape 29

• kikuchiyo 22 narrative time 30

• rikichi Et his wife 24 narrative space 32

• the samurai 25 structuring oppositions 33

!style 37

japanese aesthetics & • angles Et diagonals 55

influences on cinema 37 • wild weather 55

kurosawa & japanese • maps Et scoreboard 57

aesthetics 43 • mifune's acting 57

seven samurai & style 44 • lighting 57

visual style 45 • multi-camera shooting 58

• screen ratios 45 • telephoto 58

• black Et white • slow motion 59

ci nematog ra phy 47 • transitions 60

• framing and composition 48 • summary 60

• shooting in depth 51 music & sound 61

• vertical framings 53

Icon texts 64

japanese history & • samurai Et sixteenth-century

culture 64 society 66

• major events 64 cinema in japan 67

r

• development of jidaigeki 68 seven samurai's influence

• jidaigeki in the 1950s 10 on film makers 16
• kurosawa Et: jidaigeki 10 • seven samurai Et: the
cultural context - 1954 12 international film industry 00
readings of seven samurai production & reception 01
in cultural context 13 • critics on seven samurai 01
• humanism 74

bibliography 03

filmography 01

j a p an es e terms 00

cinema tic terms 09

ere di ts 91

Cinema resembles so many other arts. If cinema has very literary

characteristics, it also has theatrical qualities, a philosophical side,
attributes of painting and sculpture and musical elements. But
cinema is, in the final analysis, cinema.
Akira Kurosawo {1975), translated by Audie E. Bock

author of this note RoyStaffordisafreelancelecturer

and writer working in film education in the North of England. This is his
second York Film Note, following La Haine in 2000.

SE VEN SAMURAI