Someone (Sidney Pollack or Steven Spielberg) said about Stanley Kubrick films that once you start watching them, you cannot help but see it through the end. No matter the genre, or the theme, you are hooked. Same with the legend director, Akira Kurusawa.

‘Ran’ is his magnum opus (in terms of budget and international collaboration). It is an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, set against medieval Japan. The film starts off with a boar hunt expedition by of ageing warlord, Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai), and a meeting with other lords, who decides to step down from his throne, in favor of his three sons. What follows is several battles, most of which fought mentally, making it an engaging fare throughout.

The making features that are included in the blu ray are a treat to watch, which throws some interesting aspects of Akira Kurosawa

1. His attention to details and he getting down to nuts and bolts on the set. The same culture is shared by his loyal crew.
2. His focus on rehearsals and his relationship with actors. (One of the female actors, mentions about how clear he is about what he wants and communicates the same). The making feature also presents the subtle body language changes he suggests to Tatsuya Nakadai
3. Storyboarding the entire movie much in advance. (‘Ran’ began in his mind, 30 years prior)
4. His comments about
   • difference in warriors mentality of east and west. In east, death is always considered and even embraced as a possible outcome of each battle. And that reflects in the characterization of these warriors on screen
   • horses and their riders. Horses don’t ride well with tense riders.
5. Committed and loyal crew, who work on a fixed fee.
6. His daily dinners with crew members and letting the hair down after a tough day at shoot.
7. The edits that happen during the shooting schedule and the associated feedback.
8. His calm demeanor (during most of the times) in the set, his meditation breaks but still making his displeasure known, to make sure his vision is executed.
9. He often shot scenes with three cameras simultaneously, each using different lenses and angles. Many long-shots were employed and very few close-ups. The lead actress, Harada Mieko, mentioned that this helped actors to perform better, as there was no need to repeat the same scene for different range of shots.
10. The production manager, Ulrich Picard who worked with Serge Silberman, asked a lot of questions and initially Akira Kurosawa got annoyed, but later all of them gelled to good effect. It was Ulrich Picard who worked on the detailed schedule with proper time estimation. Example, estimating that a scene that was to be shot during sunset, would take 3 days, as the duration of the sunset of very short in the mountain regions. Finally, after a detailed exercise, he revised the initial budget of 6MN to 13MN US dollars.

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When you watch a movie making documentaries and the related interviews, you get to know how many people got involved and most importantly how many more  people lives have been touched in the process.

Movies are also a unique source of learning management as so many people get together, live and work together during the course of the picture. It’s almost like a mini company with all stages of management involved right from envisioning, hiring, inducting,planning, executing it day by day.

“The Third Man’ movie making features provide several interesting tidbits both related to the movie and also the management aspects.

Here are a few.

1. Director Carol Reed during his Vienna’s sightseeing trips, stumbled upon Anton Kara and his zither in a hotel. He immediately recorded his music in his hotel room, with pillows as padding to the doors for sound proofing.  Later, this music couldn’t be used, however a fresh recording was done in the studio. Rest they say is history.
2. Orson Welles played difficult to get, just to hike his fee. Director Carol Reed went along with it and agreed to all his terms. Infact, he used these challenges to good effect, while filming his entrance in the movie and also the climax scene. Accommodating a difficult yet talented actor, was done for the overall film’s good, and it worked wonders for Carol Reed.
3. David O.Selznick ( a chain smoker) had three secretaries and he dictated all of his memos to them, and he worked late into the night up to 2am. While not all of his inputs were taken into consideration (like improving the costume of the heroine), crew did act on quite a few that proved beneficial.
4. Writer Graham Greene wanted a happy ending with Anna and Holly getting together. Director disagreed and prevailed.
5. The dialogue about cuckoo clock and Switzerland came out of Orson Welles improvisation.
6. Guy Hamilton who was an assistant director to Carol Reed, was a stand in double for Orson Welles for a few scenes, including the running shadow scenes. He later went to direct a few James Bond films, including ‘Diamonds are Forever’.
7. The European actors were more popular than the English actors, and their popularity was used to get permissions while shooting in hotels etc.

Tidbit: Did the scene of transformation for Holly Martins inspire that of Jayabadhuri and Amitabh in Zanjeer?

‘The Third Man’ released in 1939, still packs a punch in terms of storytelling and various crafts of movie making. The film sports an ensemble cast and crew, with an international co-production helmed by Alexander Korda and David O.Selznick.

‘The Third man’ kicks off with the fiction writer Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), reaching Vienna to meet his friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Holly is in for a shock when he is told Harry is dead. He quickly recovers from it and soon, his simple fact finding mission turns into a full-fledged investigation in Harry’s death.

The movie is set in two parts. Act 1 (with the inciting incident of Harry’s death), is about a writer who can be accused of resorting to flights of fancy and imagination, considering his profession, and is unnecessarily meddling with an open and shut case as projected by police. Act 2 (inciting incident being Harry or his ghost appearance), is when Holly knows the truth. Act 3 (inciting incidents being his conversation with Anna, and then the unscheduled stop at the hospital), is his struggle to come to terms with and his necessity to act or withdraw.

Orson Welles charm is in full flow and his dramatic entrance is whistle worthy in the halls. His character though comes much later in the movie, still holds your attention. Rest of the characters too, are etched out in interesting details. One noteworthy aspect of it is that, all the characters right from the point of their introduction stay true to their core, irrespective of the story movement. The only person who changes and is forced to, is Holly Martins character. It’s a difficult feat to achieve in story-telling, especially with so many important characters.

The climax is well shot and deserves a special mention. So, is the music by Anton Karas and his ‘zither’ based compositions.