FilmSkool — a free film school
Red Beard (1965)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa · Shot by Takao Saito, Asakazu Nakai · Cut by Akira Kurosawa · Music by Masaru Sato · Ratio 2.35:1 · 185 min
How it was made
- The production built an entire period clinic town from historically accurate materials: roof tiles salvaged from buildings more than a century old, lumber taken from the oldest available farmhouses, and a main gate itself over a hundred years old that was later re-erected at the entrance of the theatre hosting the film's premiere.
- Costumes and bedding were aged for months before filming; the Tokugawa-period-patterned bedding seen on screen had actually been slept in for up to six months beforehand.
- Despite the two-year build, the main street set appears on screen for only about a minute; tourist buses ran sightseeing tours through the standing set during the two years it took to make the film.
- Red Beard was Kurosawa's first film shot with a magnetic four-track stereo soundtrack, framed at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1.
Elsewhere
More by Akira Kurosawa
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.