As you may remember, a while back I asked you to vote for the Akira Kurosawa Film Club‘s 2009 schedule. And although there were only three actual votes, it was enough to take me almost a week to ponder over the results.
But good things are worth waiting for, and looking at next year’s schedule I think that the cliché is actually true for a change.
Due to popular demand, we’ll kick off 2009 with Seven Samurai, which is also the film that was most voted for. The other films are the 11 that got the most votes — I gave your votes points so that the one you voted as most preferred got 12 points, the second one 11, and so on — but the order is something that I came up with (instead of voting I took the role of an arranger).
In arranging the schedule, I tried to spread the bigger epics across the year, and create as much month-to-month variety as possible. I also pushed The Lower Depths all the way to October so that we have time to figure out how to get Ugetsu a copy.
Here is the full schedule, with links to the DVD buying guide, which is still more or less up-to-date.
January: Seven Samurai (1954) [35 points]
February: The Quiet Duel (1949) [9 points]
March: Dersu Uzala (1975) [22 points]
April: Throne of Blood (1957) [28 points]
May: The Idiot (1951) [26 points]
June: Kagemusha (1980) [21 points]
July: Record of a Living Being, aka I Live in Fear (1955) [16 points]
August: The Bad Sleep Well (1960) [10 points]
September: Ran (1985) [14 points]
October: The Lower Depths (1957) [14 points]
November: The Hidden Fortress (1958) [22 points]
December: Sanjuro (1962) [14 points]
Should you have any complaints about the schedule, speak now or forever hold your peace.
Thanks for those who voted!
What is Ugetsu’s deal with The Lower Depths?
I can provide a copy, and remove region coding, and convert NTSC to PAL or whatever is needed. I have access to every DVD for this film club and the equipment to do whatever is needed to them.