Were Akira Kurosawa alive today on March 23rd 2007, he would celebrate his 97th birthday.
This means that in three years’ time we should expect quite some renewed interest towards Kurosawa’s life and films, a bit like what was going on in 1998 when the centenary of Sergei Eisenstein’s birth was being celebrated around the world. Although Kurosawa is admittedly already a relatively well remembered film director whose works are being preserved, I will be very surprised if 2010 won’t bring us at least a few new books on Kurosawa’s life and works, some new DVD releases (the early works?), as well as exhibitions, numerous film screenings, and of course a general media interest that will last for about two days.
Didnt even remember about his birthday, I was just talking about him to someone. He is one person I really wish I could of meet, too bad that he died, long before I had any interest in movies.
Its great that his works have been giving great interest already, but there is still many areas that are lacking. I hope around the 100th, for the voids to be filled. I wish for the early works, some I have not seen completely and then only once. It would be nice if Criterion does their Eclipse series on Kurosawa, like they just did for Bergman. Also a huge well done encyclopedia like book on Kurosawa and every movie would be sweet.