Ran The Movie in Inglewood, CA
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Genre: Drama
Synopsis:
Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) and his three sons wreak epic 16th-century chaos in a modified version of ``King Lear.''
Release Date: -0/01/1985
Running Time: 160
Rating: R - Restricted
http://www.ran2000.com/
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Cast:
Tatsuya Nakadai, Mieko Harada, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Ryu, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Kazuko Kato, Masayuki Yui, Hitoshi Ueki, Hisashi Igawa, Takeshi Nomura, Jun Tazaki, Norio Matsui, Kenji Kodama, Toshiya Ito, Takeshi Kato
Crew:
Director - Akira Kurosawa, Writer - Masato Ide, Writer - Akira Kurosawa, Writer - Hideo Oguni, Writer (Play) - William Shakespeare, Executive Producer - Katsumi Furukawa, Producer - Masato Hara, Associate Producer - Hisao Kurosawa, Producer - Serge Silberman, Original Music - Toru Takemitsu, Cinematographer - Asakazu Nakai, Cinematographer - Takao Saitô, Cinematographer - Masaharu Ueda, Film Editor - Akira Kurosawa, Production Designer - Shinobu Muraki, Production Designer - Yoshirô Muraki, Costume Designer - Emi Wada, Chief Assistant Director - Ishirô Honda, Assistant Director - Fumiaki Okada, Still Photographer - Daizaburo Harada
Production Companies:
Herald Ace, Nippon Herald Films, Greenwich Film Productions
Distributors:
Orion Pictures
Notes:
-Notes provided by Winstar Films- RAN Synopsis At the age of seventy, after years of consolidating his empire, the Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nadakai) decides to abdicate and divide his domain amongst his three sons. Taro (Akira Terao), the eldest, will rule. Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), his second son, and Saburo (Daisuke Ryu) will take command of the Second and Third Castles but are expected to obey and support their elder brother. To illustrate his demand for family unity, Hidetora demonstrates that a single arrow is easily, broken but that three arrows held together are strong. Taro and Jiro pledge their obedience, but Saburo defiantly breaks the arrows against his knee; a domain won in ruthless warfare cannot be held together on the promise of filial loyalty. Enraged, Hidetora banishes Saburo. Turmoil and dissension quickly follow in the wake of Hidetora's decision. Taro's wife Lady Kaede (Mieko Harada), who desires revenge against Hidetora for destroying her family years earlier, fuels the unrest by persuading Taro to humble his father. Hidetora is outraged when Taro presents him with a written pledge that he will obey Taro's rule and demands that his father sign in blood. Hidetora reluctantly signs the document and angrily departs to go to his second son. When Hidetora arrives at the Second Castle, Jiro, though outwardly welcoming, insists that he must follow his elder brother's command to refuse hospitality to Hidetora's contingent, and Hidetora leaves, vowing never to see his second son again. Hidetora is urged to join the still-faithful Saburo but is too ashamed to face his wrongly exiled son. Instead, Hidetora is deceived into occupying the Third Castle, where he and his retinue quickly find themselves under attack by the combined forces of Taro and Jiro. As his warriors are slaughtered and his concubines fall on each other's daggers in suicide, Hidetora watches, paralyzed by shock, horror, and the realization that Saburo had accurately predicted his downfall. Outside, Taro is felled by a bullet in the back, shot by one of Jiro's retainers. The stricken Hidetora disappears into the midst to wander in madness and finally comes to rest at the remains of a destroyed castle, while Jiro assumes his position with Kaede in the First Castle. When Saburo learns of his father's plight, he sets out to retrieve him from his ruin. Saburo is forced into a confrontation with Jiro, who will not allow Saburo to peacefully take Hidetora. As their troops clash in a mighty battle, a rival warlord's forces attack the First Castle and Jiro's troops retreat in confusion to protect it. 4 As Saburo and Hidetora head for safety, Saburo is slain by one of Jiro's assassins. With an anguished cry, Hidetora prostrates himself on his son's body and collapses in death. Meanwhile, First Castle is the scene of carnage and destruction as the warlord Ayabe's army swarms through the gates. Jiro, the only member of the Ichimonji clan still alive, prepares to face death. As the story ends, Saburo's prediction has been fulfilled, and the Ichimonji empire lies in ruin. 5 RAN A Decade in the Making "Ran" was Akira Kurosawa's twenty-seventh film, the culmination of an extraordinary career. In its epic scale, stylistic grandeur and tragic contemplation of human destiny, "Ran" brought together the great themes and spectacular images of the director's life work. "Ran," which translates as "chaos" or "turmoil," is Kurosawa's meditation on Shakespeare's "King Lear" crossed with the history of Japan's 16th-century Civil Wars and the legend of Mori, a feudal warlord with three good sons. The tale of the three arrows, unbreakable when sheathed together, is Mori's famous illustration of filial loyalty and family strength in unity. "Ran" grew out of the question Kurosawa posed himself: what if Mori's sons had not been loyal? what if the three arrows were broken? The answer is "Ran," "King Lear" imbued with Japanese history and philosophy and deeply personal echoes of Akira Kurosawa himself. "Ran" was Kurosawa's obsession for ten years. It has evolved from the film that Kurosawa feared would never be made to the most ambitious and expensive undertaking in Japanese film history. Though by American standards for 1985, "Ban's" cost of roughly 11.5 million dollars was modest, the visual splendor achieved through the budget is nearly unimaginable. RAN is presented by Winstar Cinema to commemorate the film's 15`" anniversary. New, laser subtitles have been produced for brand new 35mm prints, struck from the remarkably well-preserved negatives stored by Serge Silberman in Paris. 6 RAN About the Production Kurosawa employed three cameras simultaneously on "Ran," each shooting from a different angle and using a different-size lens, his famous "multi-camera" method. Takao Saito, co-director of photography with Masharu Ueda, began working with Kurosawa in 1946 as an assistant cinematographer on "One Wonderful Sunday" and has worked on most of Kurosawa's films since. Asazuki Nakai, who also collaborated on "Ran's" cinematography, is another Kurosawa veteran going back to 1946's "No Regrets For Our Youth." The interiors for "Ran" were shot at Toho and in a new studio in Yokohama built by Kurosawa and his son Hisao for Kurosawa Productions; Kurosawa has said that the studio is a legacy for Japan's future filmmakers. But it is the magnificent use of both natural splendors and man-made structures that is most striking in "Ran." The mountains and plains of Hidetora's domain were captured at Mount Aso, an active volcano in the broad central plains of Kyushu, Japan's southern island, a beautiful and wild region of peaks and valleys, woods and fields. Weather plays a strong symbolic role in "Ran," from the ominously massing thunderheads of the film's opening to the blood-red sunset of its close, with the central metaphor of the fierce typhoon which marks Hidetora's descent into madness. The film's epic battle scenes presented their special challenges. Roughly 1400 extras and 250 horses were marshaled for the production (reports in the Japanese press of some 15,000 horses and 120,000 extras are perhaps indicative of Kurosawa's mastery in using a detachment to suggest a full army). Extras recruited from local towns adopted their temporary roles as feudal warriors with dignified enthusiasm. Allusions to Noh tradition were also used in creating the characters' make-up. As the sovereign lord, Hidetora's fierce visage resembles the demon mask, "akijo," but in his decline into madness, his deeply-lined face and red-rimmed eyes suggest "shiwajo," the mask of the sorrowing old-man-spirit who must wander the earth as a ghost to pay for his sins. Kaede, Sue and Tsurumaru also recall Noh figures representing specific themes such as vengeance or the search for enlightenment. Another Japanese influence not immediately apparent to Western viewers is the underlying theme of "girl," the complex system of interpersonal obligations that is a fundamental concept of Japanese culture. The "chaos" of "Ran's" title can, in this sense, be thought of as the destruction of the bonds of duty uniting a son to his father, a brother to his brother, and a samurai to his lord. 7 In its interweaving of Japanese tradition and philosophy, Shakespearean tragedy, and universal themes of the human condition, "Ran" is the summation of a lifetime's experience, the work of a cinematic master at the height of his creative powers. 8 RAN Akira Kurosawa Akira Kurosawa's closest colleagues addressed him as "sensei," a respectful and affectionate term meaning "teacher" or "master." Kurosawa is unquestionably the greatest master of Japanese cinema and an artist whose film legacy has made him a mentor to filmmakers throughout the world. With "Ran," the culmination of his life's work, Kurosawa stood as a figure larger-than-life, with a personal history of brilliant achievement won through tenacious and sometimes painfully difficult adherence to his creative and philosophical goals. Akira Kurosawa was born in Tokyo on March 23, 1910, the youngest of seven children. His father, a teacher and retired military man, was descended from a noted samurai clan. After a classical education, Kurosawa studied painting at the Proletarian Art Research Institute and became fascinated with film and literature, particularly Russian novels of the 19th century. Despite gaining acceptance into several important group painting shows, Kurosawa found that financial security as a painter was a near-impossibility (he nevertheless continued to paint throughout his life, making hundreds of drawings and paintings, such as those he made in preparation for "Kagemusha" and "Ran"). In 1936 he answered an ad which led to work as an assistant director under Kajiro Yamamoto at Toho Studio; "Yamamoto" provided a rigorous but exceptionally creative apprenticeship during which Kurosawa honed his craft and learned screenwriting (he wrote or co-wrote all of his films). Kurosawa remained at Toho for twenty-four years. In 1943, Kurosawa directed his first film, "Sanshiro Sugata," a judo saga whose success prompted the making of a sequel (the only Kurosawa project ever undertaken begrudgingly). An action film already displaying strong technical virtuosity, "Sanshiro Sugata" also shows an early preoccupation with the choices and struggles, the moral dilemma, of the individual attempting to define and live up to a personal code. This individualistic humanism set within an engrossing entertainment would become a hallmark of Kurosawa's films to come. Although propaganda concerns and material shortages made creative freedom difficult during the wartime years, Kurosawa continued to aim for a more personal expressions in his films. His 1944 "The Most Beautiful" featured actress Yoko Yaguchi, who married Kurosawa shortly after the film was made (Mrs. Kurosawa, whose real name was Kiyo Kato, died during the making of "Ran"). The postwar years brought a new latitude in addressing contemporary social problems. With 1948's "Drunken Angel," an evocative drama set in a tough gangster milieu, Kurosawa began his fruitful collaboration with a then unknown young actor, Toshiro Mifune, who would star in sixteen Kurosawa films. 9 It was the phenomenal and unexpected international acclaim for "Rashomon," however, which propelled Kurosawa to worldwide fame and introduced Western audiences to a sophisticated Japanese film industry; "Rashomon," starring Mifune, won the 1951 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and has virtually contributed a new phrase-" Rashomon situation"-to the English language. The 1950s and early 60s were prolific and highly successful years for Kurosawa, who had the unprecedented (and never equaled) freedom in the Japanese film industry to make whatever films he chose; his large and devoted Japanese audience, seconded by continued overseas admiration, guaranteed the profitability of Kurosawa's films. He continued to experiment with cinematic form and dramatic shading, moving back and forth from period to contemporary settings with equal assurance, perfecting a trademark style using multiple cameras and dynamic montage. Two of his greatest films, "Ikiru" (1952) and "Seven Samurai" (1954) illuminated Kurosawa's concern with individual moral choices at work among both modern-day bureaucrats and 16th-century warriors. Kurosawa also focused on transposing Western themes to a distinctly Japanese context and sensibility in films such as "The Idiot" (1951) based on the Dostoevsky novel; "The Lower Depths" (1957) taken from Gorky; "Throne of Blood" (1957), a "Macbeth" filtered through stylized Noh drama; and "High and Low" (1963), adapted from the surprising source of an Ed McBain detective thriller. In 1960 Kurosawa left Toho to inaugurate his own production company with "The Bad Sleep Well," a study of corporate corruption, followed by "Yojimbo" (1961), "Sanjuro," (1962) and "Red Beard" (1965), using vivid action, historical settings and, in the first two, cynical, anarchic humor to mirror contemporary restlessness and social ills. (The genesis of the Italian "spaghetti Western" is directly traceable to "Yojimbo," remade by Sergio Leone in 1964 as "A Fistful of Dollars" starring Clint Eastwood; likewise "Seven Samurai" was remade as "The Magnificent Seven," directed by John Sturges in 1961, "Rashomon" inspired Martin Ritt's 1964 "The Outrage," and George Lucas has identified "The Hidden Fortress"' pair of comic peasants as the forerunners of "Star Wars"' robot duo R2D2 and C3P0). The 60s in Japan, however, were a time of both increasing critical alienation from the kind of analysis of the human condition that Kurosawa championed and of financial retrenchment in the Japanese film industry; though generally profitable and, by American standards, moderately budgeted, Kurosawa's films were consistently among the most expensive in Japanese cinema owing to their often sweeping scale and the director's dogged insistence upon technical perfection and historical accuracy down to the finest details. It became increasingly difficult for Kurosawa to locate adequate financing for his films in Japan. The paradox of Kurosawa's career is that while he is Japan's best-known director, acclaimed throughout the world and a major influence on cinema styles, he was not always able to rely on the respect of critics and younger film directors in Japan. He was frequently labeled "too Western"-perhaps an inevitable price paid for his following in the 10 West-and lamented his failure to find the apprentice to whom he could pass on his lore, as Yama-San once inspired him. Kurosawa has been called a "prophet without disciples" in his own country. In 1968 Kurosawa agreed to direct the Japanese side of "Tora! Tora! Tora!," a Twentieth Century-Fox production telling the story of Pearl Harbor from both Japanese and American perspectives. Cross-cultural communication and financial and artistic control problems led to his resignation only days into filming. The adverse publicity surrounding the "Tora! Tora! Tora!" incident and a disappointing reception for his subsequent "Dodeskaden" (1970) proved damaging to Kurosawa's career and morale, and a period of ill health and depression ensued. In 1975 he accepted an offer from the U.S.S.R. to film a project of his choice on Soviet soil; "Dersu Uzala," shot in Siberia over two years of extreme conditions of heat and cold (the aftermath of frostbite plagued the director until the end of his life), was the triumphant result, winning the 1975 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and restoring Kurosawa's vigor and authority. The idea for "Ran" began taking shape in Kurosawa's imagination, but the epic magnitude of the scenario discouraged both Japanese and Western investors. Frustrated by the stalemate on "Ran," Kurosawa conceived the similarly-themed "Kagemusha" and sought to find financing while creating hundreds of vibrant paintings and detailed storyboards of both films; the paintings preserved his conceptions of imagery and dramatic climaxes at a time when Kurosawa was unsure if either film would ever be made. Through the intervention of avowed Kurosawa devotees George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, Twentieth CenturyFox eventually completed the financing for "Kagemusha," which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1980. Kurosawa regards "Kagemusha" as a "dry-run" for the more richly conceived, more deeply personal "Ran." Akira Kurosawa's Something Like An Autobiography was published in 1982. The book covers Kurosawa's life only through "Rashomon:" "`Rashomon' became the gateway for my entry into the international film world, and yet as an autobiographer it is impossible for me to pass through the Rashomon Gate and on to the rest of my life .... I think that to learn what became of me after `Rashomon' the most reasonable procedure would be to look for me in the characters in the films I made after 'Rashomon' .... There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself." Kurosawa's subsequent films addressed more deeply moralistic themes. In 1990, "Dreams," made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by "Rhapsody in August," which premiered in 1991. Kurosawa began to write the scenario for "Dreams" in 1986, creating an episodic journey comprised of eight vignettes bound by the connecting theme of humanity's destruction of nature. "Rhapsody," starring Sachiko Murase, Hidetaka Yoshioka and Richard Gere, represented Kurosawa's attempt to make peace with the painful memories of the bombing of Nagasaki at the end of WWII, seen through the eyes of an old woman who survived the bombing. In 1993, Kurosawa completed his most personal film, "Madadayo," marking 50 years of directing movies. The film pays tribute to Hyakken Uchida, a beloved professor who abandons his university position to dedicate his life to writing. "Madadayo" turned out to be Kurosawa's last film. On September 6, 1998, the "Sensei of Cinema," passed away. 12 RAN Akira Kurosawa Filmography 1943 - "Sanshiro Sugata" 1944 - "The Most Beautiful" 1945 - "Zoku Sanshiro Sugata" 1945 - "The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail" 1946 - "No Regrets For Our Youth" 1947 - "One Wonderful Sunday" 1948 - "Drunken Angel" 1949 - "The Quiet Duel" 1949 - "Stray Dog" 1950 - "Scandal" 1950 - "Rashomon" 1951 - "The Idiot" 1952 - "Ikiru" (also known as "To Live") 1954 - "Seven Samurai" 1955 - "Record of a Living Being" (also known as "I Live in Fear") 1957 - "Throne of Blood" 1957 - "The Lower Depths" 1958 - "The Hidden Fortress" 1960 - "The Bad Sleep Well" 1961 - "Yojimbo" 1962 - "Sanjuro" 1963 - "High and Low" 1965 - "Red Beard" 1970 - "Dodeskaden" 1975 - "Dersu Uzala" 1980 - "Kagemusha" 1985 - "Ran" 1990 - "Dreams" 1991 - "Rhapsody in August" 1993 - "Madadayo" 13 RAN About the Cast TATSUYA NAKADAI (Lord Hidetora) was born in Tokyo on December 13, 1932. After his father's death, he worked his way through high school, and during his last year there, saw a "shingeki" (modern drama) performance which inspired him to take up acting. Upon a graduation in 1952, Nakadai was accepted by the Haiyu-za (Actor's Theater) Training School, where he spent three years. Nakadai first attracted attention with his stage appearance in Ibsen's "Ghosts." Nakadai's first film appearance was in 1954 in Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai," in which he had a non-speaking role as a masterless samurai passing in the street. His first important role, as a young seducer in Umeji Inoue's "Fire Bird" (1956), brought him immediate recognition and a series of roles in films by such distinguished directors as Mike Natures, Kon Ichikawa, Shiro Toyoda, Kihachi Okanoto, Hideo Gosha, Daisuke Ito, Masahiro Shinoda and Satsuo Yamamoto. Nakadai's greatest roles, however, came out of his collaboration with Masaki Kobayashi and Akira Kurosawa. Under Kobayashi, he acted in the ten-hour-long "Human Condition" (1961,) the internationally praised period films "Harakiri" (1962) and "Rebellion" (1967) and the ghost story "Kwaidan" (1964.) Under Kurosawa's direction, Nakadai played opposite Toshiro Mifune in "Yojimbo" (1961), "Sanjuro" (1962) "High and Low" (1963) and finally in the main double role of Lord and Shadow Warrior in "Kagemusha" (1980.) Nakadai was active with the Haiyu-za Theater until 1979, and has been seen often on Japanese television since the early 1970's. In 1975, Nakadai and his wife Tomoe Ryu, an ex-actress and writer for film, stage and television, founded an acting school which has already produced several recognized young actors and actresses, including Daisuke Ryu, who played the role of Nobunga Oda in "Kagemusha" and plays the role of Saburo, the third son in "Ran." JINPACHI NEZU (Jiro) was born on December 1, 1947 in Yamanashi Prefecture, the son of a dentist. Nezu became interested in theater while still in high school, acting in a play which he wrote himself. After entering the French Language Department of Dokkyo University in Tokyo in 1966, in the midst of the student movement, Nezu read a book by an avant-garde theater director named jokyo Gekijo ( The Situation Theater.) Through his appearances in Kara's productions, Nezu gradually established himself as a unique actor and became an important member of the avant-garde theater circle. 14 In 1975, Nezu began to appear on television, which brought him nationwide popularity. His first film appearance was in Kara's "Korean Sea" (1976.) He left the Jokyo Gekijo in 1979, and before appearing in Kurosawa's "Kagemusha," played a main role in Eiichi Kudo's "Fights without Rules: Sequel" (1979). Nezu also appeared in "A Farewell to the Land" (1982), which was shown in the 1983 new Directors/New Films series in New York, and was directed by Mitsuo Yanagimachi, whose "Himatsuri" (Fire Festival) was a selection of the 23rd New York Film Festival. SHINNOSUKE IKEHATA, a.k.a. PETER (Kyoami, the Fool) was born in Osaka on August 8, 1952 into a family of Japanese traditional dancers. He adopted the persona of "Peter" after quitting high school in 1967. Peter made his film debut in avant-garde director Toshiro Matsumoto's 1969 rendering of the Oedipus story set in a contemporary Japanese bar district, "The Funeral of Roses." As a singer and dancer, Peter has been a popular transvestite performer on television since 1969, and continues to play both male and female roles in film, on stage, and in traditional Japanese dance performances. MIEKO HARADA (Lady Kaede) was born on December 26, 1958 in Tokyo. While attending elementary school, she began to study ballet. In the seventh grade, she saw "Melody" (1971), a British film starring Mark Lester, which so enchanted the young Harada that she was determined to enter the film world. When Lester came to Japan in 1973 to appear in a Japanese film, Harada auditioned for the opposite role. Although she did not get the part, a television agent signed her to a contract, and she began to study singing and acting. Harada mad her screen debut in 1973 in the provocative youth film, "Love is in Green Wind," winning immediate acclaim that led to several other films. In 1976, her roles as a young prostitute in Yosuzo Masumura's "The Lullaby of the Earth," and as the lover of a boy who murders his parents in Kazuhiko Hasegawa's "The Murder of Youth" allowed Harada to monopolize all of the major acting awards of that year. Harada continued to appear in films, including Kinji Fukasaku's "Shogun's Assassins" (1978), her first period film; Kudo's "Fights Without Rules: Sequel"' opposite Jinpachi Nezu: Tatsumi Kumashiro's "Hell" (1980); and Satsuo Yamamoto's "Ah! Nomugi Pass" (1980.) After graduating from a Tokyo public high school in 1978, Harada wrote, produced and starred in "Mr., Mrs., Miss Lonely" in 1980. Harada has been active on television since 1975; on stage, she performed opposite actor Shintaro Katsu (the blind swordsman of Zatoichi) in 1979, and in 1980, Katsu published a photography book about her, "Katsu vs. Mieko." 15 RAN About the Filmmakers SERGE SILBERMAN (Producer) brought to bear thirty years' experience in shepherding the difficult production of "Ran" through financing, filming and release. Few current-day producers take as broad an interpretation of the term as Serge Silberman. His role as a producer extends far beyond what he calls "a hand signing checks" to that of a true collaborator, with the vision to take risks, assume responsibilities and make hard decisions in bringing a film he cares deeply about to fruition. "A film is not made in an office, but in a meeting of the minds, an understanding with the director that goes on at all times, day and night, with real passion and that streak of craziness without which the cinema has never been able to exist. 1 am not a movie-making factory. In thirty years of production I have made less than twenty films. 1 never rush things. Patience is a thing you have when you know what you want." This approach has resulted in a string of impressive credits including five of director Luis Bunuel's most renowned late films. Serge Silberman was born in Lodz in Poland and studied in Milan Liege in Belgium. In 1945, at the age of 28, Silberman settled in Paris, becoming involved for the first time in film production. By 1949, he was an executive with Victoria Films (which had produced such pre-war classics as Marcel Carne's 1938 "Quaff Des Brumes,") and with Play-Art Films, which distributed with Jean-Pierre Melville's now classic gangster film "Bob Le Flambeur" and Juan-Antonio Bardem's "Calle Mayor" (Grand' Rue). Victoria and PlayArt merged into Cine Alliance, with Mr. Silberman as Co-Chairman and Producer, and in 1960 he approached director Jacques Becker, who was having difficulty finding backing for his tense prison drama "Le Trou," which became a classic and a favorite with the young directors of the New Wave. Robert Siodmak's "L'Affaire Nina B" and Christian-Jaque's "Madame Sans-Gene" followed in 1960 and 61. In 1963, Silberman met Luis Bunuel, who greatly admired the claustrophobic intensity of "Le Trou." They agreed to make "Diary of a Chambermaid," and a rewarding collaboration and close friendship was formed, ending only with Bunuel's death in 1983. "We had a contract that was very clear. Freedom for everybody. If I didn't like what he did or we didn't arrive at an agreement, we were free not to do it. Everything would be done with complete agreement." Silberman was able to re-create this meeting-of-minds approach with Kurosawa on "Ran." "Diary of a Chambermaid" was the first Bunuel film to be presented as a commercial, rather than strictly "art-house" film, and though all of Silberman's subsequent Bunuel productions-including "The Milky Way" (1968), "The Discreet Charm of the 16 Bourgeoisie" (1972,) "Phantom of Liberty" (1973) and "That Obscure Object of Desire" (1976)-entailed some financial risk, Silberman undertook them in the same spirit and they were indeed among the most widely seen and commercially successful of Bunuel's career. In 1966, Greenwich Films, Mr. Silberman's own production company, came into being with "Adieu L'Ami" (Farewell, Friend) directed by lean Herman and starring Alain Delon and Charles Bronson. Under the Greenwich banner, Silberman has produced or coproduced in 1980 with Mrs. Irene Silberman's company Galaxie Films. "Diva" won critical acclaim and commercial success in France and abroad. In 1982, Silberman served as Executive Producer on James Toback's "Exposed," starring Nastassja Kinski and Rudolf Nureyev. Silberman's involvement with "Ran," beginning in 1982, came after an automobile accident in 1978 had kept him bedridden for three years. After "Ran," Silberman produced Nagisa Oshima's 1986 film "Max, Mon Amour." Filmography 1955 - Bob Le Flambeur Jean-Pierre Melville 1955 - Grand' Rue (Calle Mayor) Juan-Antonio Bardem 1960 - Le Trou (The Hole) Jacques Becker 1960 - L'Affaire Nina B Robert Siodmak 1960/61 - L'Oiseau De Paradis (Dragon Sky) Marcel Camus 1961- Madame Sans-Gene Christian laque 1963 - Diary of a Chambermaid Luis Bunuel 1965 - Galia Georges Lautner 1967/68 - Adieu L'Ami ( Farewell, Friend) Jean Herman 1968 - The Milky Way Luis Bunuel 1969/70 - Le Passager De La Pluie (Rider on the Rain) Rene Clement 1971 - Le Course Du Lievre A Travers Les Champs Rene Clement 1972 - The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Luis Bunuel 1973 - Phantom of Liberty Luis Bunuel 1975 - Les Mal Partis lean-Baptiste Ross! 1975 - A Nous Les Petites Anglaises Michael Lang 1976/77 - That Obscure Object of Desire Luis Bunuel 1978 - Le Grand Embouteillage (Bottleneck or Traffic Jam) Luigi Comencini 1980 - Diva lean-Jacques Beineix 1982/85 - Ran Akira Kurosawa 1986 - Max, Mon Amour Nagisa Oshima 17 HIDEO OGUNI (Screenwriter) was born in 1904 in Aomori Prefecture, the northernmost area of Japan's main island of Honshu. He graduated from the theology department of the Tokyo Gakuin. Influenced by an idealistic movement in Japanese literature, he went to live in a commune on the southern island of Kyushu in 1919. Oguni entered Nikkatsu-Kyoto Studio in 1927, and later moved to its Tokyo Studio, while being trained as and assistant director. He also began writing screenplays, and in 1938, moved to Toho Studio. After directing two films based on his own screenplays, he decided to concentrate on screenwriting, and wrote Teinosuke Kinugasa's first postwar satire film, "Lord of a Night" (1946.) At the invitation of Kurosawa's screenwriting group, Oguni's first project with Kurosawa was "Ikiru" in 1952. He has since collaborated on all Kurosawa's film except "Yojimbo," "Dersu Uzala" and "Kagemusha." MASATO IDE (Screenwriter) was born in 1920 in Saga Prefecture on Kyushu. He graduated from the Tokyo Toshima Teacher Training School in 1941, and studied writing with the popular author Shin Hasegawa. Ide began working at Shin-Toho Studio in 1948. In 1953, his novel, "The Salt of the Earth" was nominated for a major Japanese prize. Around that time, Ide began to work as a screenwriter, and has since worked with many distinguished directors including Yoshitaro Nomura and Kei Kumai. For Kurosawa, Ide participated in the writing of "Red Beard" (1965) and "Kagemusha" (1980). TAKAO SAITO (Director of Photography) was born in 1929. He entered Toho Studio in 1946 as an assistant cameraman and worked on Kurosawa's "One Wonderful Sunday" under cinematographer Asakazu Nakai (who began working as Kurosawa's cinematographer in 1946 on "No Regrets For Our Youth," and supervised the cinematography on "Ran.") Salto contin
