Événement

Puget Soundtrack: Bill Horist Presents Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

Fri May 25: 8.00pm

Live Music
** Live score! **

About
Unfolding in a series of eight mythic vignettes, this late work by Akira Kurosawa was inspired by the beloved directors own nighttime visions, along with stories from Japanese folklore. In a visually sumptuous journey through the masters imagination, tales of childlike wonder give way to apocalyptic apparitions: a young boy stumbles on a fox wedding in a forest; a soldier confronts the ghosts of the war dead; a power plant meltdown smothers a seaside landscape in radioactive fumes. Interspersed with reflections on the redemptive power of creation, including a richly textured tribute to Vincent van Gogh (who is played by Martin Scorsese), Akira Kurosawas Dreams is both a showcase for its makers artistry at its most unbridled and a deeply personal lament for a world at the mercy of human ignorance.

Much of my work as a musician has veered away from the more narrative aspect of conventional song. Sonically, I tend to favor texture, synesthetic elements and oneiric structures over standard Western melody, harmony and rhythm. To that end, what could be more dreamlike than this film? In Dreams, Akira Kurosawa wanders away from more traditional narrative into more expressionistic instances. Although there is a distinct narrative in each of the eight distinct vignettes, atmosphere tends to be the more salient aspect of the film. Having been a longtime fan of Kurosawas and given my regular collaborative work in Japan, I feel a certain resonance with that culture and the atmospheres created within. Additionally, the separate vignettes give me the opportunity to create several focused aural environments without the need for recapitulation and varied repetition as mandated by soundtracks to more conventional narrative films. Bill Horist on his score for Akira Kurosawas Dreams

Film description courtesy of Criterion.