Review of Kurosawa’s ‘The Hidden Fortress’

The Hidden Fortress, 1958, directed by Akira Kurosawa

The Story: A samurai general guards and transports his clan’s gold and princess across enemy territory, departing from a hidden fortress in the desert mountains. Along the way there are spear duels, close escapes, pursuits through the forest mists, scrapes with the executioner, and even a paganistic wood-burning ritual around a giant bonfire. The story is told largely from the perspective of two pathetic and bickering peasants who accompany the general and the princess on their journey.

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Diary for My Children (no 18)

(Hungary 1982 107m) DVD2

Aka. Napló Gyermekeimnek

Diary for myself…

d  Márta Mészáros  w  Márta Mészáros, Balàzs Fakan, András Szeradás  ph  Miklós Jancsó Jnr  ed  Éva Kármentö  m  Zsolt Döme  art  Éva Martin

Zsuzsa Czinkóczi (Julia ‘Juli’ Kovacs), Anna Polony (Magda), Jan Nowicki (Janos), Mari Szémes (grandmother), Pàl Zolnay (grandfather), Ildikó Bánsági (Juli’s mother), Támas Toth (Janos’ son),

Referring to Márta Mészáros’ trilogy of which this was the first part (Diary for My Loves in 1987 and Diary for My Father and Mother in 1990 completed the triptych) Mark Cousins observed that collectively they “represent not only the country’s greatest films of the decade but the best ever about women living in the shadow of Stalin.”  Seeing the whole trilogy today can prove quite tricky, unseen on British television since the glory days of Channel 4’s World Cinema strain, never released on video, and even Second Run’s DVD suffered more delays than British Rail.  Thankfully the film had been released in France in a perfectly decent English subtitled DVD release which will hopefully bring it the recognition that’s long overdue.  If only the other films in the trilogy – though they’re not quite as good – would follow.

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