From: internetado@alt119.net

I wouldn't presume to draw many comparisons between the work of Akira
Kurosawa and Werner Herzog. There is, in both directors, a rough,
masculinist daring that fully explores the tragic limitations and
bloody consequences of rough, masculinist daring. This broad thematic commitment expresses itself in both artists' films in wildly different
ways. Maybe what most connects them, and connects them to their ardent
fans, is a shared writerly sensibility. Film may be foremost a visual
medium, yet-given the weight of thousands of years of oral and written storytelling that came before it-filmmakers cannot produce great work
without steeping themselves in literature.

Or, at least, that's what both Kurosawa and Herzog have argued-and who
would contradict them? Filmmaking is a risky endeavor in the best of circumstances. "It costs a great deal of money to make a film these
days," and becoming a director is "not so easily accomplished," says
Kurosawa in his interview offering advice to aspiring filmmakers above.
"If you genuinely want to make films," he says, "then write
screenplays." Where did the ideas for his screenplays come from? From literature. It's important, he says, that filmmakers "do a certain
amount of reading. Unless you have a rich reserve within, you can't
create anything."

Kurosawa adapted the 1951 Rashomon, perhaps his most widely acclaimed
film, from two short stories by Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, "Rashomon" (1915) and "In a Grove" (1921). 1985's Ran is famously "an Eastern retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear," an author from whom
Kurosawa learned much. He adapted Dostoevsky, his favorite writer, in a Japanese context, and his 1957 film The Lower Depths adapts a play by
Maxim Gorky. Even his films that do not directly translate another
writer's work still draw inspiration from literary sources. Reading
leads to writing, and to become an accomplished filmmaker, Kurosawa
says in no uncertain terms, you must write.

This advice does not always go over well, he admits. Writing is painful
and difficult, often a thankless, unforgiving task with no immediate
reward. "Still," he says, paraphrasing Balzac, "for writers, including novelists, the most essential and necessary thing is the forbearance to
face the dull task of writing one word at a time." One only learns how
to do this by doing it-and by immersing oneself in the work of others
who have done it. To succeed as a storyteller, the basis of the
director's art, you must "write, write, write, and read."

Herzog, implying the importance of writing more than stating it
outright, begins and ends his advice to young aspirants above with the
repeated injunction, "read, read, read, read," and so on. "If you don't
read, you'll never be a filmmaker." Technical considerations are
secondary. Herzog's Rogue Film School encourages students to "go
absolutely and completely wild"… by reading Hemingway, Virgil, The
Poetic Edda, and J.A. Baker's The Peregrine. (He also suggests The
Warren Commission Report and Bernal Diaz del Castillo's True History of
the Conquest of New Spain.) Kurosawa does not offer specific
suggestions. He grants that "current novels are fine, but one should
read the classics too." The kinds of stories these filmmakers recommend
has much to do with their own temperaments and interests; whatever you
might prefer to read in the course of your directorial training, Herzog
says you must read as much as possible, and, Kurosawa adds, you must
write, write, write, and write some more.

Related Content:

Werner Herzog Creates Required Reading & Movie Viewing Lists for
Enrolling in His Film School

Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School: Apply & Learn the Art of Guerilla
Filmmaking & Lock-Picking

How Did Akira Kurosawa Make Such Powerful & Enduring Films? A Wealth of
Video Essays Break Down His Cinematic Genius

Akira Kurosawa's List of His 100 Favorite Movies

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness

To Make Great Films, You Must Read, Read, Read and Write, Write, Write,
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Eduardo
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