RASHOMON at the Film Forum

Now playing at New York's Film Forum through June 11th. Pictures sent to me courtesy of my friend, Mark Chiarello – Thanks Mark!

The basis for this stunning new restoration was a 35mm print created in 1962 from the original camera negative; while the print itself was in good physical condition, the source material from which it was made was extremely battered. Due to the extensive printing and handling it had received over its lifetime, many shots were already starting to shrink and warp, and there were numerous scratches, dust, and dirt in the damaged negative. Scanned at 4k resolution, that 47-year-old print has been meticulously cleaned both digitally and by hand, complete with a new, seamless soundtrack.

Kokeshi

Just finished my kokeshi that will be included in the exhibition Kokeshi: From Folk Art to Art Toy at the Japanese American National Museum, July 11 – October 4, 2009.

RASHOMON

Rashomon, 2009, oil and encaustic on linen mounted on wood panel with distressed wooden beam, 52 x 44 in., 132 x 112 cm.

Okay, I'm excited here – I just finished this painting for Criterion and Janus Films that's being used as the movie poster for the theatrical re-release of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon! The screening info should be posted by next week at janusfims.com. When I moved to NYC in 1980 for college, Kurosawa's Kagemusha had just been released in the US and was the first foreign subtitled film I had ever gone to a theater to see. After that, I started going to the Japan Society Film House to watch his previous films. All this tied in with so many of my other interests at the time and still does now. I'm told that we'll have copies of the poster available at San Diego Con this summer at the Allen Spiegel Fine Arts booth.