Rashomon (Great Restorations)

Introduction to the film in English | start of the film: 18:30

Rashomon

Japon 1950 | Akira Kurosawa | vostEN | 88’ | digital | Cast : Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Shimura

▶ Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival 1951; Honorary Award (Best Foreign Film), Oscars 1952

▶ New Digital Restoration

In 11th-century Japan, a samurai is found dead. Four conflicting accounts are given by a woodcutter, a bandit, the samurai’s wife, and the samurai’s spirit, summoned by a medium. Each tells a different version of the crime – but is anyone telling the truth?

« Rashomon is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made. Four people give different accounts of a man’s murder, which director Akira Kurosawa presents with striking imagery and an ingenious use of flashbacks. This eloquent masterwork and international sensation revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema – and a commanding new star by the name of Toshiro Mifune – to the Western world. » (Criterion Collection)

« Rashomon changed how we perceive film as well as human behavior. For us subjective creatures, the truth is constantly elusive. » (Alan Rudolph)

« Every element in the film, from the dense thicket of forest branches to master cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa's deceptive framing and lighting design, is precisely calibrated to make the facts more difficult to discern. » (The A.V. Club)

Org. : Cinémathèque