Seven Samurai and Jane Eyre
I am working on a few projects right now--the search for employment also involves mountains of free time. Having finished Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World--I took notes and asked and answered questions of what I learned and already knew--I started on The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages, 400-1000, again using the same note-taking process. It's the only way I can process information.
I began a project involving reading Jane Eyre and watching the films, I read twitter updates from the futbol world, my dad and I have taken to watching one or two episodes of Star Trek Enterprise every night for a month now, I play soccer on three teams, volunteer at the local museum, take care of the doggies...Needless to say, Reader, I am making my way quite slowly through my projects.
Tonight I finished watching Seven Samurai with the commentary, which was done by Michael Jeck, Japanese film expert. He is very articulate and knowledgeable, and talks not only of the director and the film's stars, but of the rest of the cast, the crew, the type of lens used, what type of shot we were looking at, the music that hints at who is the protagonist in a scene. He points out one scene in relation to others and the landscape in relation to what we see.
Seven Samurai and Jane Eyre are what I wish to ramble about here. I tried to make this point to my dad earlier, but I at first confused him by putting an epic samurai film and a gothic romantic novel in the same sentence (though he did offer some words in agreement while I talked incoherently).
Before this month, if you asked me what my favorite films are, I would automatically start with Seven Samurai. I was introduced to this masterpiece by my parents when I was in my teens. They are great film lovers, my parents, and have a wonderful connection to Japan--they met and fell in love there, a Venezuelan and a girl from Southern California--and they passed on this interest to me. I fell in love with Seven Samurai, with the samurai themselves, especially Kyuzo and Heihachi's smile. I frequently reminisce on the first moment we see Kyuzo, in that duel. When I'm thinking or in a new situations I sometimes rub my head like Kambei. The action scenes are fantastic. I cried for Yohei and revenged with Kikuchiyo.
I learned so much from the M. Jeck commentary. All the technical things I will no doubt forget, but what stays is the vision and inspiration of Akira Kurosawa, the man, actor, and stylings of Toshiro Mifune, and just what it meant to have your topknot cut off if you were samurai.
I still contend that Seven Samurai is my favorite film. I can back that up now with more knowledge and appreciation as someone who has seen a lot more samurai films, other beautiful Toshiro Mifune performances (I am quite partial to Yojimbo and Sanjuro), and more films overall in my life than that teenager who first was in awe of Kurosawa's film. It has everything I love--great action, good bad ugly handsome characters, and it makes you feel and think.
Before this month, if you asked me what my favorite books are, my automatic answer was for two: Jane Austen's Persuasion and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. I love Persuasion with a passion; the snark and observations of the author are wonderful, the romance painful for most of it.
I watched the latest Jane Eyre movie--Cary Fukunaga's 2011 version--and was struck by how different of an approach it was to my favorite version, the one with Toby Stephens as Rochester. Fukunaga's has a decided darker tone, while Toby Stephen's Rochester lived in a less dark tone. Yes, one is a two-hour length film and the other a some four-parter for Masterpiece Theatre. Of course they would be different. But I grew up on Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt as Jane and Rochester, respectively, and that too is different from Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender in the same roles. The focus is different in each approach, I noticed. So I have taken it upon myself to first read the novel with better attention and some note-taking, then to go and watch the film and made-for-television versions to...well, for me. For my sanity. (I am curious about Orson Welles as Rochester, and I tried once to watch the Timothy Dalton version but he was too good-looking, too Bond, for me to accept him as Rochester. That's almost a false statement, because Fassbender is pretty fucking gorgeous, as is Toby Stephens, but they pulled off the mysterious, sensitive hero well.)
The book I choose for Jane Eyre was not the one I grew up with--in my two-year stay in Texas I had to have my favorite books with me, so instead of being content that I had them here in Califas, I bought them again. This version comes with an introduction that so opened my eyes to what else Jane Eyre is about--I mean, aside from the romance between Jane and Rochester, which is the first thing I thought of when asked about why this is my favorite book; the romance and, of course, the writing style. In other words, aside from the Gothic and romantic elements and the perfect combination of words, Bronte also has the reader think about the role and condition of women, and religion, two subjects that are not separate from each other in the world of Bronte. I had never thought of this. I always glaze over anyway when God is mentioned, and as a young girl I didn't appreciate what it meant and means to be a woman in this day and age and in those days of yore. I have a better understanding now, of course, and so with my re-reading of Jane Eyre I have a new and more potent appreciation of the novel.
Because I have found new light in the things I have claimed to have loved for at least half of my life, I am curious to know what new ideas I will discover if/when I re-read or re-watch other books or films. Because of re-approaching Jane Eyre and Seven Samurai I have had my eyes opened to infinite more possibilities, ideas, thoughts, and desires. I hope I never stop learning more and more, and I hope to keep this desire until the inevitable end. I hope I finish my other projects, too; I keep piling them on.
muy importante: all Seven Samurai gifs from the beautiful beautiful Samurai Cinema. Please visit that site, please watch more samurai films. We all need samurai films in our lives.
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