His first notable work was a comedy short Chess Fever (1925) co-directed with Nikolai Shpikovsky. José Raúl Capablanca played a small part in it, with a number of other cameos presented. In 1926 he directed what would become one of the masterpieces of silent movies: Mother, where he developed several montage theories that would make him famous. Both movies featured Pudovkin's wife Anna Nikolaevna Zemtsova in supporting female parts (she left cinema shortly after).
The film is not shot, but built, built up from the separate strips of celluloid that are its raw material.
Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (Russian: Всеволод Илларионович Пудовкин, IPA: [ˈfsʲevələt ɪlərʲɪˈonəvʲɪtɕ pʊˈdofkʲɪn]; 16 February 1893 – 30 June 1953)[1][2] was a Russian and Sovietfilm director, screenwriter and actor who developed influential theories of montage.[3] Pudovkin's masterpieces are often contrasted with those of his contemporary Sergei Eisenstein, but whereas Eisenstein utilized montage to glorify the power of the masses, Pudovkin preferred to concentrate on the courage and resilience of individuals. He was granted the title of People's Artist of the USSR in 1948.
The Latin cogito, ergo sum, usually translated into English as "I think, therefore I am",[a] is the "first principle" of René Descartes's philosophy. He originally published it in French as je pense, donc je suis in his 1637 Discourse on the Method, so as to reach a wider audience than Latin would have allowed.[1]
The Scottish philosopher John Macmurray rejects the cogito outright in order to place action at the center of a philosophical system he entitles the Form of the Personal. "We must reject this, both as standpoint and as method. If this be philosophy, then philosophy is a bubble floating in an atmosphere of unreality."[61] The reliance on thought creates an irreconcilable dualism between thought and action in which the unity of experience is lost, thus dissolving the integrity of our selves, and destroying any connection with reality. In order to formulate a more adequate cogito, Macmurray proposes the substitution of "I do" for "I think," ultimately leading to a belief in God as an agent to whom all persons stand in relation.
In the foreword to Richie's book A Hundred Years Of Japanese Film, Paul Schrader writes, "Whatever we in the West know about Japanese film, and how we know it, we most likely owe to Donald Richie." Richie also penned analyses of two of Japan's best known filmmakers: Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. Because Richie was a friend of Fumio Hayasaka, who composed music for the cinema, he first met Kurosawa on the set of Drunken Angel, the director's initial collaboration with Toshiro Mifune.
Rashomon (1950) Commentary by Donald Richie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UXD5FJFC5M
*****
The Films of Akira Kurosawa, Third Edition, Expanded and Updated (Paperback)
In an epilogue provided for his incomparable study of Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), Donald Richie reflects on Kurosawa's life work of thirty feature films and describes his last, unfinished project, a film set in the Edo period to be called The Ocean Was Watching.
Kurosawa remains unchallenged as one of the century's greatest film directors. Through his long and distinguished career he managed, like very few others in the teeth of a huge and relentless industry, to elevate each of his films to a distinctive level of art. His Rashomon—one of the best-remembered and most talked-of films in any language—was a revelation when it appeared in 1950 and did much to bring Japanese cinema to the world's attention. Kurosawa's films display an extraordinary breadth and an astonishing strength, from the philosophic and sexual complexity of Rashomon to the moral dedication of Ikiru, from the naked violence of Seven Samurai to the savage comedy of Yojimbo, from the terror-filled feudalism of Throne of Blood to the piercing wit of Sanjuro.
About the Author
Donald Richie (1924-2013) was the Arts Critic for The Japan Times.
Praise For…
"A gratifying study for both film buff and critic." — Kirkus Reviews
"The seminal work on one of the greatest of all film artists, [it] has universally been regarded as a masterpiece of film criticism." — Bloomsbury Review
"Definitive, readable, and a virtual model for future studies in the field." — Saturday Review
Additional Physical Format: Online version: Richie, Donald, 1924- Films of Akira Kurosawa. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1965 (OCoLC)573359484. Named Person: Akira Kurosawa; Akira Kurosawa; Akira Kurosawa; Films; Akira ...
218 pages
280 pages 3
The Films of Akira Kurosawa. Third Edition. By Donald Richie. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. 271 pp. $24.95.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2010
唐纳里奇《日本日記 上 》 上海译文 2011 一些錯誤 頁160 注 應為 Walter Kaufmann (philosopher) - Wikipedia,談的論文應收入其書: Existentialism, Religion, and Death: Thirteen Essays Donald Richie這本 《日本日記》像Rudolf Arnheim著的 Parables of Sun Light: Observations on psychology, the arts and the rest, (University of California Press, 1989) 都是改寫過的--書中在1960年詳細記下Rudolf 的學者風範-- 不過此注我可補充--此書一時找不到 所以以後再查是否談過.....Donald Richie
Donald Richie has been writing about Japan for over 50 years from his base in Tokyo and is the author of over 40 books and hundreds of essays and reviews. He is widely admired for his incisive film studies on Ozu and Kurosawa, and for his stylish and incisive observations on Japanese culture.
Product Details
Hardcover: 440 pages
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press (October 1, 2004)
This is what every memoir should be. Unhindered by any attempt to be self-serving, Donald Richie’s The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 is about the most unflinchingly honest opening of the tightly turned lid of self you'll ever read. You can't help but like an autobiographer willing to welcome you this deeply into his 510-page heart.
Not that there's a paucity of things to like about Japanese film historian Donald Richie. One of the most underrated writers of the last 50 years, Richie wields his pen with a depth of insight that more famous writers would swap Booker Prizes for, and his command of detail and emotion are on par with the best — even here in a ‘journal.'
Although journal in name, The Japan Journals is more than nighttime afterthought, for Richie realized early on that the detritus of his daily life was destined for the shelves of others, and therefore wrote accordingly — with concentration and abundant skill.
Richie isn't just an interesting writer, he's an interesting human being, a person who has lived a life filled with fascinating and often famous others — Yukio Mishima, Marguerite Yourcenar, Emperor Hirohito and Francis Ford Coppola, to name a few. Included is perhaps the most insightful assessment of the internal life of the near impossible-to-comprehend Mishima, while it is highly likely that Richie is the inspiration for Bill Murray’s character in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, for he tells of spending time with the teenaged director-to-be in Tokyo.
Better known as the leading Western authority on Japanese film, the beyond erudite Donald Richie could also be subtitled the ‘Gore Vidal who chose to live in Japan.' Equally talented and insightful as the American polemicist, Richie is more heartfelt to Vidal’s glib, and therefore on final reckoning, even more rewarding.
“Although human beings are incapable of talking about themselves with total honesty, it is much harder to avoid the truth while pretending to be other people. They often reveal much about themselves in a very straightforward way. I am certain that I did. There is nothing that says more about its creator than the work itself.”