gurdymonkey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gurdymonkey) wrote2010-02-27 11:03 am
gurdymonkey) wrote2010-02-27 11:03 am
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Seven Samurai on the big screen
Oatmeal has been ingested.
J and I met outside as planned. His handshakes are awfully tentative, but other than that, he was good company.
The Stanford Theatre is a gorgeous old-timey movie palace from the 1920s, complete with a big Wurlitzer organ that was being played as J and I paid for our tickets. We got front row seats in the balcony - I mean, when was the last time I could go to a theater that HAD a balcony??? Chatted a bit over the Wurlitzer until it swung into a spirited rendition of the theme from "The Magnificent Seven," at which point I cracked up. The lights went down and people actually began applauding as the titles came up and the curtains swirled open.
It wasn't a DVD projection either, it was film, because the opening few minutes had a little "confetti" on the print as well as some tinny sound, which went away as the movie played. And what a movie. Shichinin no Samurai is a classic because it is a good story well told and well acted. Toshiro Mifune is wonderful, of course, as the mercurial Kikuchiyo, but Takashi Shimura as Kanbei, the leader of the samurai, is the rock, the leader. Bokuzen Hidari's Yohei, the long faced peasant, provides great comedic touches. "The farmers have won, not us," Kanbei says, surveying the graves at the end, while the peasants sing and plant their rice.
So worth it. I'm going down Sunday afternoon for a double feature of "Rashomon" and "Scandal," if anyone cares to join me. "Rashomon" starts at 3:55.
J and I met outside as planned. His handshakes are awfully tentative, but other than that, he was good company.
The Stanford Theatre is a gorgeous old-timey movie palace from the 1920s, complete with a big Wurlitzer organ that was being played as J and I paid for our tickets. We got front row seats in the balcony - I mean, when was the last time I could go to a theater that HAD a balcony??? Chatted a bit over the Wurlitzer until it swung into a spirited rendition of the theme from "The Magnificent Seven," at which point I cracked up. The lights went down and people actually began applauding as the titles came up and the curtains swirled open.
It wasn't a DVD projection either, it was film, because the opening few minutes had a little "confetti" on the print as well as some tinny sound, which went away as the movie played. And what a movie. Shichinin no Samurai is a classic because it is a good story well told and well acted. Toshiro Mifune is wonderful, of course, as the mercurial Kikuchiyo, but Takashi Shimura as Kanbei, the leader of the samurai, is the rock, the leader. Bokuzen Hidari's Yohei, the long faced peasant, provides great comedic touches. "The farmers have won, not us," Kanbei says, surveying the graves at the end, while the peasants sing and plant their rice.
So worth it. I'm going down Sunday afternoon for a double feature of "Rashomon" and "Scandal," if anyone cares to join me. "Rashomon" starts at 3:55.
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