Andrei Tarkovsky: the director Akira Kurosawa called “a little brother”
There’s barely a director in the business who doesn’t look to Akira Kurosawa for inspiration and influence in one form or another. Many have met the man themselves, and a couple have even worked on his films, but only one became so close that their relationship was brotherly.
Noted Kurosawa fanboy Steven Spielberg came face-to-face with his idol more than once, Martin Scorsese played Vincent Van Gogh for him after jetting straight from the set of Goodfellas, and he sat down for a chinwag with Abbas Kiarostami and Hayao Miyazaki at various points, so he was far from being a reclusive presence.
The filmmaker responsible for several of cinema’s greatest-ever pictures was very private, though, but he nonetheless forged a close bond with one of his peers despite the fact they hailed from opposite sides of the world and told very different stories.
Kurosawa’s work was defined by its reflections and ruminations on Japanese culture and society, but he was so skilled that his features transcended barriers to become global favourites. More experimental and existential in his approach, Andrei Tarkovsky nonetheless belongs on the very same pedestal as another of the all-time greats.
They even got drunk and sang karaoke together, which is quite the mental image to be conjured, and enjoyed a screening of Tarkovsky’s Solaris side-by-side following a set visit that left Kurosawa “very happy to find myself living on Earth.” They wouldn’t blindly celebrate each other’s latest film just because they were friends, however, with that sibling-esque rivalry extending to nit-picking.
Tarkovsky wasn’t a particularly huge fan of Throne of Blood, for example, but each to their own. Kurosawa was crushed when his peer, contemporary, and friend passed away at the age of only 54 years old in December 1986, reflecting on how he viewed the Russian auteur in a rare interview with Cinephilia Beyond.
“He was a fine fan, he was as dear as a little brother to me,” Kurosawa said, before sharing his concerns and eventual heartbreak over Tarkovsky’s health. “I was worried about him because he was so frail. I was truly disturbed by his death. He was extremely weak, sensitive, and ill.”
He missed the companionship, too, with Kurosawa recalling the times when “my filmmaker friends and associated would stop by without prior notice,” where they “would sit, and talk, and drink.” Tarkovsky probably would have been there with bells on, but much to the Japanese legend’s dismay, “in recent years they don’t show up even when I invite them.”
The impact of Tarkovsky’s death evidently had a massive impact on Kurosawa, and even though the two titans of cinema tackled the medium in completely different ways, the brotherly love remained firmly in place until it was sadly shattered.
