Directed by Akira Kurosawa • 1952 • Japan
Starring Takashi Shimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Kyoko Seki
One of the greatest achievements by Akira Kurosawa, IKIRU shows the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an exploration of death. Takashi Shimura beautifully portrays Kanji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer who is impelled to find meaning in his final days. Presented in a radically conceived twopart structure and shot with a perceptive, humanistic clarity of vision, IKIRU is a multifaceted look at what it means to be alive.
Up Next in The Belcourt Theatre
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Elevator to the Gallows
Directed by Louis Malle • 1958 • France
Starring Jeanne Moreau, Maurice Ronet, Georges PoujoulyFor his feature debut, twenty-four-year-old Louis Malle brought together a mesmerizing performance by Jeanne Moreau, evocative cinematography by Henri Decaë, and a now legendary jazz score by Miles Da...
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Profound Desire of the Gods
Directed by Shohei Imamura • 1968 • Japan
Starring Kazuo Kitamura, Rentaro Mikuni, Choichiro KawarasakiIn many ways the ultimate expression of director Shohei Imamura’s vision of a world ruled by elemental instinct and chaos, this stunning, visually ambitious epic follows Kariya (Kazuo Kitamura...
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The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
Directed by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta • 1975 • Germany
When Katharina Blum spends the night with an alleged terrorist, her quiet, ordered life falls into ruins. Suddenly a suspect, Katharina is subject to a vicious smear campaign by the police and a ruthless tabloid journalist...
