Panel Discussion: Lumet on Kurosawa Miller Theatre, Columbia University (116th St. & Broadway)

February 2, 1999

Panel Discussion: Lumet on Kurosawa
Miller Theatre, Columbia University (116th St. & Broadway)
6:00 PM
A panel discussion with American film artists, including director Sidney Lumet, about the influence of Akira Kurosawa.

Film: Ikiru
Director: Akira Kurosawa. (1952, 140 min.)
With Tadashi Shimura, Nobuo Nakamura, Kamatari Fujiwara, Miki Odagiri, Bokuzen Hidari, and Minoru Chiakii
Miller Theatre, Columbia University (116th St. & Broadway)
8:30 PM
A petty official in a city ward office learns that he is dying of cancer.  Told that he has only six months to live, he struggles to give meaning to his life.  Kurosawa combines poetic imagery and complex flashbacks to tell the story of a man’s despair in the face of his own mortality.  Takashi Shimura gives one of world cinema’s finest performances as the lonely protagonist.  In scene after scene, his barely audible grunts, shuffling walk, and almost imperceptible gestures form a characterization that cannot be shaken from memory.