Kurosawa italian DVD

Hello,

my name is Diego Pellecchia. I’ve been checking the website now and then but it’s the first time I write.

Although I now live in London, I’ve been doing some work on Kurosawa in Italy.. including publishing a deluxe dvd edition of Throne of Blood with brand new extras – mainly focused on the influence of Noh theatre in the film.

I have looked here and there to find the webmaster of this site but couldn’t fine anywhere.. any clue?

Hi Diego! Welcome. Vili is our host, and the brainchild of the forum. On the Introduction page he explains his interest:

https://akirakurosawa.info/forums/topic/introducing-vili

Hope that is helpful. Feel free to add your own bio/introduction. Very happy to have your input!

Hi Diego,

I’m the webmaster of this website, so it might be me you are looking for.

Is the DVD that you are referring to this one?

Hello everyone, nice to meet you!

Let me introduce myself. I am a doctoral student at Royal Holloway University of London, Drama & Theatre Department. My main interest is Noh theatre and reception studies. Throne of Blood was the thing that introduced me to both, actually.

The work we did on Throne of Blood was quite extensive, using brand new materials, and mainly explored the connections between the film and Noh theatre. Unfortunately, the extras are only available in Italian. Since the BFI edition is so poor in terms of extras, I would like to propose this work in UK, too. Also, I would like to continue on this track with another film: Ran.

Vili, are besides being the webmaster here, are you also involved in cinema/media arts or are you working on Akira Kurosawa specifically?

Diego,

Apart from tossing around potential film related projects here and there, I can’t really say that I am at the moment particularly involved in the cinema or media worlds. And considering the lack of proper updates on this website, I wouldn’t say that I am really working on Kurosawa, either. Not as much as I would like to, anyhow. Whatever small contributions I have had the time to make in the past few months have been for the Film Club here.

I hope that you manage to find a channel for your exploration of Noh in Kurosawa. Do let us know if the rest of us can help in any way.

I don’t know how long you have been following this website or how far back into the news archives you have read, but just in case you weren’t aware of it, in 1983 Kurosawa shot approximately 50 minutes of a noh performance for what I understand was a planned documentary on noh. This was during the production of Ran, and Kurosawa Production are now planning to finish what was started back then and release the feature in 2010, to coincide with Kurosawa’s centenary. You can find (slightly) more information here.

I’m mentioning this for two reasons: For one, the feature will most probably give us more insight into Kurosawa’s relationship with noh, whatever the new content may be. Secondly, you might consider trying to find out who is producing that DVD, and whether they could use your expertise in noh and Kurosawa. You already have a Kurosawa feature under your belt, so possibly incorporating that into the package as well as having you provide material on Ran would, if I were the person putting this thing together, something to seriously consider.

Finally, I hope that you will stick around! It would be fascinating to have your expertise on board, especially so when the Film Club gets to Throne of Blood and Ran! (But really, it would be great to have your contribution on other films as well, if you feel like joining the discussion.)

Dear Vili,

thank you for the reply. Unfortunately I’m not an assiduous reader of the forum, but I should dedicate more time to it, since the conversations seem to be extremely interesting. Of course I know about the Genzai no Nou project, even though the footage I have seen so far is a bit puzzling (basically it’s the ending portion of the Noh Yashima, shot with a fixed camera, quite boring for those who don’t go crazy for Noh like me, I believe…) anyone could have shot that. I have visited the official Kurosawa 100 website and I have to say I’m a bit disappointed, I’m afraid they will cannibalize Kurosawa rather than celebrating him.. anyways, long story and I will see if there is a discussion about this in the forum, cause I would like to exchange my ideas about this.

Thank you for the invitation to the film club, it seems really interesting!

keep in touch

Diego.

PS: I could maybe post some stills from our Italian DVD

Stills would be great, Diego!