“People say [my eyes] are expressive but I’ve never tried to use them that way. They are just the gateway to my internal feelings. Kurosawa used to tell me, ‘Wherever you are, there is light coming from your eyes.’ And that’s a very good thing for an actor, I say.”
Tatsuya Nakadai
Born December 13, 1932
“Naruse’s method consists of building one very brief shot on top of another, but when you look at them all spliced together in the final film, they give the impression of a single long take. The flow is so magnificent that the splices are invisible. This flow of short shots that looks calm and ordinary at first glance then reveals itself to be like a deep river with a quiet surface disguising a fast-raging current underneath. The sureness of his hand in this was without comparison.” — Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa and Mikio Naruse. Kurosawa served as Naruse’s assistant director on Nadare (Avalanche, 1937).
One day on the set I had nothing to do, as usual. So I went behind a backdrop that had clouds painted on it and found a huge velvet curtain that was used for backgrounds in night scenes. It was conveniently folded, so I lay down on it and promptly went to sleep. The next thing I knew, one of the assistant lighting technicians was prodding me awake. “Run!” he said. “Naruse’s mad.” In a panic I fled through a ventilation hole in the back of the stage. As I scrambled, I heard the lighting assistant yell, “He’s behind the clouds!” When I came nonchalantly through the front entrance to the stage, Naruse was coming out. “What’s wrong?” I asked, and he replied, “Somebody’s snoring on my stage. My day’s ruined, so I’m going home.” To my great shame, I was unable to admit that I had been the culprit. In fact, I didn’t bring myself to tell Naruse the truth until ten years had passed. He thought it was very funny.
Akira Kurosawa: Something Like an Autobiography
“Naruse’s method consists of staging one very brief shot after another; but when we look at them placed end-to-end in the finished film, they give the impression of one long single take. The fluidity is so perfect that the cuts are invisible. A flow of shots that looks calm and ordinary at first glance reveals itself to be like a deep river with a quiet surface disguising a fast-raging current.”
- Akira Kurosawa on Mikio Naruse, born 106 years ago today.
