Toshirô Mifune lives in fear in Akira Kurosawa classic
I LIVE IN FEAR (IKIMONO NO KIROKU) (Akira Kurosawa, 1955)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Friday, July 12, 6:30; Thursday, July 18, 9:00; and Saturday, July 20, 9:15
Series runs July 10-21
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
Akira Kurosawa’s powerful psychological drama begins with a jazzy score over shots of a bustling Japanese city, people anxiously hurrying through as a Theremin joins the fray. But this is no Hollywood film noir or low-budget frightfest; Kurosawa’s daring film is about the end of old Japanese society as the threat of nuclear destruction hovers over everyone. A completely unrecognizable Toshirô Mifune stars as Nakajima, an iron foundry owner who wants to move his large family — including his two mistresses — to Brazil, which he believes to be the only safe place on the planet where he can survive the H bomb. His immediate family, concerned more about the old man’s money than anything else, takes him to court to have him declared incompetent; there he meets a dentist (the always excellent Takashi Shimura) who also mediates such problems — and fears that Nakajima might be the sanest one of all. Also known as Record of a Living Being, I Live in Fear is screening July 12, 18, and 20 as part of the Anthology Film Archives series “agnès b. selects,” consisting of ten films chosen by the Versailles-born fashion designer that, she explains, “taught me to appreciate other points of view, seen from a different angle, showing passion and the wounds, of every sort, that left their mark on me forever.” Among her other selections are Lindsay Anderson’s If, Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers, Miloš Forman’s Loves of a Blonde, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, and Ken Russell’s Women in Love.