DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week.
For the final massive Japanese historical epic of his career, Akira Kurosawa chose to blend the story of the downfall of a real figure from Japanese history — 16th century warlord Mōri Motonari — and Shakespeare’s King Lear. As in the English work, the film centers around a ruler who decides to step down, and split his kingdom in third, to be distributed among his children (sons, rather than Lear’s daughters). The siblings’ rivalries, now bolstered by armies, descend the kingdom into civil war, slowly driving the old warlord mad as he surveys the wreckage of his former lands. At 75, Kurosawa demonstrated that he had not lost a beat when it came to filming epic conflict, filling his frames with huge armies in balletic battle, yet never losing the intimacy of the film’s quieter moments. The film celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and to celebrate, a brand new 35mm print has been struck for a new theatrical release, which E Street will begin screening tomorrow.
View the trailer.
Opens tomorrow at E Street.
—
June is Caribbean American Heritage Month, and for the 10th year the AFI is partnering with the Caribbean Association of World Bank and IMF Staff, Caribbean Professional Network, Institute of Caribbean Studies, and TransAfrica Forum to present a series of Caribbean films. The series goes on for just the next three days, with seven features from Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Guyana, and Belize. Subjects range from documentaries about prominent personalities from the region (Haitian politician Jacques Roumain, Guyanan equal rights activist Dr. Walter Rodney), films about Jamaican reggae, Cuban jazz, Belizean Garifuna music, as well as a drama about a young girl coming of age following the death of Haitian dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier.
Tomorrow through Sunday at the AFI. Check their site for a complete schedule.
