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View Full Version : Ever Seen COBWEB CASTLE?



paulski_fiat
08-04-2003, 05:39 AM
COBWEB CASTLE is an adaption of Shakespeare's MACBETH.
Mifune (who else) is playing the japanese Macbeth.

The movie is a horrorlike and creepy fairy tale. I like the forrest scenes a lot. A battery of fog machines is creating a haunting atmosphere. Ways disappear, the shreeking voice of the witch that tells Lord Washizu (the Macbeth) his future will send shivers down your spine. The acting is very stylized - the actors appear to wear masks that change from pride to fear, from hypocrisis to desperation. This movie completely lacks the humour of YOJIMBO or THE SEVEN SAMURAI. The movements and gestures are more like in KAGEMUSHA. Very abstract in certain way and reduced. The atmosphere of the whole movie is filled with fear, the anticipation of treachery within the own ranks, it shows the inevitable self-destruction of a powerful warlord who crossed the line. Nothing he can do to wash the blood off his hands. The scenerie is unbelievably fascinating. Mud, medieval wooden fortresses, fog waving thru the countryside - I was instantly caught by this atmosphere of war, complete devastation and not a sign of luck or forgiveness. The confused ride of Washizu thru the cobweb forrest (at the beginning of the movie) where he first encounteres the witch is better than those in RASHOMON or THE SEVEN SAMURAI. The warlord is in desperation, can't find a way out of the forrest, rides back and forth until the witch appears lit in blinding white within the dark and tempest-waving forrest. This appearance is so unnatural, it reminds me of the fortune teller in RASHOMON. The way that Kurosawa (and his DP) is using the B&W material is very different of what european or american directors tried that same time. K. creates a huge and finely developped range of atmospheres that squench the last out of the motion picture films that were available that time. It combines very dark almost black portions and brightly, unnatural lit ones. The cutting of the riding scenes is breathtaking. Every time I watch that movie I just want to take my camera out. It's a great source of inspiration for me - to work with B&W materials and try to create very differentiated atmospheres.

There's another piece of real sugar in this movie: the last scene in which Washizu is killed by a platoon of his own archers because his military elite learned of his betrayal and assassination of his superior lord. Washizu tried to hide in the wooden contruction of a fortress wall. The archers are hauling clouds of arrows at him while runs for cover - his movements are stopped over and over by arrows that hit close to his face in the wooden walls. The archers continue to play cat-and-mouse with him. He whirls around - volleys of arrows hit close to him until his bamboo armour is littered with arrows that can't harm him. It's like watching a big elephant to be killed by thousands of little shots. The archers advance and shatter him with arrows. He is hit in his underbelly, his legs, his chest but still doesn't give up. Finally, an arrows fetches thru his throat freezing his face - he just starres paralyzed at the former troops and steps slowly down the wall in the front of the soldiers. He tries to advance forward, pulls his sword and falls down to the earth (in SloMo), dust is waving around his body. Imagine that scene with the never stopping noise of flying arrows.

I really like to work on B&W materials. Unfortunately, the motion picture films from Kodak and other manufacturers are not very advanced since the key interest is the development of ever better colour emulsion. So if anyone has significant experience with working on B&W please share your knowledge with me.

(Excuse my faulty English - I start to practice a little more, so be free to add any improvements or critics)

oscar jubis
08-04-2003, 11:30 AM
I knew I had watched it but didn't recognize the title. The film's had several alternative English titles including Castle of the Spider's Web and Macbeth. But most English speakers know it as THRONE OF BLOOD. I like it very much and liked your comments too.

Johann
08-05-2003, 10:26 AM
I'll be seeing this film later in the week.
Look for my verdict in the summer retrospective:Akira Kurosawa thread.

Akira was going to make this film before he actually did, but he postponed it because Welles was doing a version

HorseradishTree
08-07-2003, 03:45 PM
Oh, right! Throne of Blood, I recognize it now. I really need to watch more Kurosawa.

paulski_fiat
08-08-2003, 07:21 AM
The only Welles Shakespeare I've watched was CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (UK Title) with Welles playing the Falstaff and John Gielgud as Henry IV. I was very dissappointed - I almost fell asleep after 60 minutes watching it. That movie doesn't have the slightest trace of the intense atmosphere that Kurosawa managed to create in THRONE OF BLOOD.

Have you ever watched closely to the riding and running scenes in RASHOMON? As I watched it the first time I was astonished by the perfect camera technique and choreography of those scenes. They must have levelled the forrest for a week or so to place the dolly and the crane. There's one moment where the camera follows an actor side-by-side, then takes over, crosses the road in front of the actor and films the actor from behind. Kurosawa was really ahead of his time. His camera just moves and moves. He uses long focus optics for squeezing foreground and background together, so the speed of the actors is higher and the run through the forrest is more desperate.

Kurosawa is very fond of long focal optics - in SEVEN SAMURAI is one scene where Mifune adanves at one of the bad guys and drives him out of a wooden cottage. The camera is far away and watches thru the wooden fence/wall of the cottage using a long focus. It gives the action more speed and more compression - I think Kurosawa was one of the first directors (and visionaries) to free the camera and making it more agile both in camera movement and focal distances. Thats why I like him a lot and tend to watch his movies very often. Somehow they don't age. And B&W is refreshing after watching so many new color-manipluted movies.

pauli.

Johann
08-08-2003, 04:58 PM
Kurosawa's cameramen were geniuses.
You mention riding scenes- indeed they are pulse-pounding.

Case in point: Hidden Fortress. When the travelling troupe gets broken up, Mifune mounts a steed and races to what ends up being a showdown spear duel with his arch-enemy. I couldn't help but feel Ford's influence.

BTW- isn't that duel AWESOME? Toshiro is so INTENSE . Stay out of a warrior's way...