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Dersu Uzala (1976)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa.
Directed by Akira Kurosawa · Shot by Yury Gantman, Fyodor Dobronravov · Music by Isaac Schwartz · Ratio 2.35:1 · 141 min
How it was made
- The production used Sovscope 70 cameras loaded with ASA 40 film stock, slower than the ASA 100-120 stock standard in Japan, and each camera required three men to operate because of its weight.
- For one night scene, the crew hosed down trees to form icicles and hung bottles from the branches so their sound would build atmosphere, but the water in the hosepipe froze before filming could finish.
- An old aeroplane propeller was kept on set for eight months to simulate wind for a single shot; when its engine finally started, it caught fire and the planned shoot had to be cancelled.
- Kurosawa initially tried filming with a wild tiger, but after the animal collapsed and lead actor Yuri Solomin objected to its treatment, the shoot was called off and a retired circus tiger was substituted in Moscow.
- Blizzard scenes were created by piling up snow in advance and tossing it into the air with shovels in front of a fan.
- Temperatures on location dropped to minus 40 degrees Celsius, and Kurosawa himself developed frostbite during the shoot.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Akira Kurosawa
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