‘I’m surprised – I thought I was just here for a talk,’ said Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Imagine’s Guest of Honour, as he accepted an Career Achievement Award yesterday afternoon from our festival director Chris Oosterom. With interviewer Julian Ross to his right and an interpreter to his left, the Japanese master then spent two hours talking to a packed room at de Filmhallen about his horror films.
‘The devils is really in the details, not necessarily in jump scares or shock tactics,’ the Japanese director explained. A gentle breeze rustling the leaves, a door left ajar, the back of someone’s head – it’s enough to evoke a sense of unease. The creepiness often comes down to what you don’t show. Take this clip from Kurosawa’s Creepy, in which a woman brings her neighbour a stew. Just a regular daily occurence, but through Kurosawa’s lens it becomes quite… creepy. In the ‘forbidden room’ scene from Pulse, in which a young man is attacked by a female ghost, it’s the editing that sends shivers down your spine. The director takes his audience through the scene shot by shot, only to suddenly realise: ‘I’m giving everything away!’
Surprisingly, it’s American director Richard Fleischer – and not, for example, Alfred Hitchcock – who’s had a major influence on Kurosawa’s work, illustrated by two clips centred on a detective questioning a suspect. The first is from Fleischer’s The Boston Strangler, which Kurosawa also chose to screen at Imagine. The second is from Kurosawa’s own Cure. Afterwards, the director says he finds the comparison painful: in his view, Fleischer does a much better job.
We’re nearing the end of Kurosawa’s talk. ‘Any questions from the audience?’ asks Ross. At least twenty hands shoot up, but unfortunately, we’ve only got time for three. Outside of the screening room, people line up for a second chance. The ever-modest and amiable Kurosawa, surrounded by fans, decides to stay a bit longer. Anyone who missed it can catch the remaining part of the Kurosawa programme this week, but if you want to catch the man himself, Creepy on Nov 2nd is the final screening with a Q&A attached.
