Rashomon

I saw Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon today, a very thought-provoking film. Although the absolute truth of the events it describes is shown to be irrelevant, I can't help wondering exactly what the 'real' scenario is.

The plot is, at least initially, uncomplicated: a woman is raped by a bandit and her husband is killed. Also, the film has only three locations: the wood where the rape and killing take place, an open-air court where witnesses describe the events, and a derelict building in which the situation is discussed.

What the director does with this simple scenario, though, is quite amazing: he presents the narrative in flashback, from the perspectives of four different people. Each version of the events is different, as each one favours its own self-serving and unreliable narrator. We are never told which, if indeed any, of these versions is entirely true, though we are left with the clear awareness that truth itself is highly subjective.

Toshiro Mifune stars as the proud yet naive bandit. He recounts what he regards as his noble actions, though, in one version of events, the woman escapes after he begs her to marry him. Her surprisingly stoical husband reacts calmly to everything around him though is also a skilled samurai swordsman. His wife is alternately terrified and dominant, screaming in fear though later mocking the two men for their lack of verility. So, each version of the story presents a different interpretation of the characters.

In the wood where the central story takes place, the sun shines through the trees creating a dappled light that reminds me of the lovely Pierre Auguste Renoir painting of the Moulin de la Galette. Rashomon not only shows this dappled sunlight, though; he also films the sun itself, glinting between the trees.

Lens flare, when a light source is pointed directly at the camera, is one of my absolute favourite photographic effects. Akira Kurosawa was one of the very first directors to point his camera directly at the sun, and when he does so in Rashomon he creates a beautiful and natural image.