Akira Kurosawa: Master of Cinema is a lavish book celebrating Kurosawa’s contribution to world cinema. The book’s numerous full-page photographs are its main attraction: glossy reproductions of film stills, paintings, and script drafts, all of which look stunning.
The author, Peter Cowie, divides Kurosawa’s films into modern and historical narratives (the traditional Japanese gendai-geki and jidai-geki dichotomy), with an additional chapter on Kurosawa’s literary inspirations and a rather esoteric discussion of miscellaneous elements. Cowie has written a decent overview of Kurosawa’s life and work, though the text is clearly secondary to the gorgeous images.
Martin Scorsese provides a brief foreword, and there is an introduction by Kurosawa expert Donald Richie. Cowie acknowledges that Richie’s book The Films of Akira Kurosawa is the definitive account of Kurosawa’s work, and offers Master of Cinema as “a pictorially driven tribute” to Kurosawa that complements Richie’s study.
Master of Cinema, with a short note written by Kurosawa’s daughter Kazuko, is a semi-official commemoration of Kurosawa’s centenary. Cowie is also an authority on the careers of Ingmar Bergman and Francis Ford Coppola.
The author, Peter Cowie, divides Kurosawa’s films into modern and historical narratives (the traditional Japanese gendai-geki and jidai-geki dichotomy), with an additional chapter on Kurosawa’s literary inspirations and a rather esoteric discussion of miscellaneous elements. Cowie has written a decent overview of Kurosawa’s life and work, though the text is clearly secondary to the gorgeous images.
Martin Scorsese provides a brief foreword, and there is an introduction by Kurosawa expert Donald Richie. Cowie acknowledges that Richie’s book The Films of Akira Kurosawa is the definitive account of Kurosawa’s work, and offers Master of Cinema as “a pictorially driven tribute” to Kurosawa that complements Richie’s study.
Master of Cinema, with a short note written by Kurosawa’s daughter Kazuko, is a semi-official commemoration of Kurosawa’s centenary. Cowie is also an authority on the careers of Ingmar Bergman and Francis Ford Coppola.