Great minds may not necessarily think alike, but they are certainly drawn to other great minds. No matter the medium, an auteur in any field is at once recognizable and respected by their intellectual peers, and that is just the case with the celebrated Akira Kurosawa and his 1990 film “Dreams.”
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“Dreams” marks the first film solely written by Kurosawa, with the magical realist drama spread across eight vignettes. And in "Crows," we follow an art student (a proxy Kurosawa) as he at first admires three very famous paintings by the post-impressionist master, Vincent van Gogh, and is then drawn inside of one — the brilliance of Van Gogh’s succinct brushwork brought to life. It’s the only vignette not in Japanese (in English and French, another rarity for Kurosawa here) and eventually we find another auteur, Martin Scorsese, dressed up as van Gogh himself, but as ever, utilizing his New York accent while addressing art students on the importance of “natural beauty.”
To the tune of Fredric Chopin, the art student and van Gogh have a conversation in a field, Scorsese donning glistening crimson hair and a bandaged ear before he disappears and the student must make his way through other famous paintings in order to find him.
It’s a surreal look inside the minds of three artists at once; an idealization that provides some insight into three of the greatest artistic minds of the past millennium. Let us know what you think in the comments below, and what other artists you’d like to see portrayed by famous directors. [Open Culture]
