The role of the artist is to not look away.
Interpretation
Artists have a responsibility to confront reality and showcase the truth without avoidance.
This quote by Akira Kurosawa highlights the duty of artists to engage with the world around them, especially its harsh realities. Instead of ignoring difficult truths or turning a blind eye to the suffering, artists are called to observe and reflect these experiences through their work, provoking thought and inspiring change in society.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of contemporary artists in social issues.
Of all my films, people wrote to me most about this one... ...I had wanted to make The Idiot long before Rashomon. Since I was little I've liked Russian literature, but I find that I like Dostoevsky the best and had long thought that this book would make a wonderful film. He is still my favourite author, and he is the one - I still think - who writes most honestly about human existence.
I can't afford to hate anyone. I don't have that kind of time.
For me, filmmaking combines everything. That's the reason I've made cinema my life's work. In films, painting and literature, theatre and music come together. But a film is still a film.
A truly good movie is enjoyable too. Thereβs nothing complicated about it.
but ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane. The terrible thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and innocent expression in public.
The root of any film project for me is this inner need to express something. What nurtures this root and makes it grow into a tree is the script. What makes the tree bear flowers and fruit is the directing.
I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.
Do you know, Considering the market, there are more Poems produced than any other thing? No wonder poets sometimes have to seem So much more businesslike than businessmen. Their wares are so much harder to get rid of.
When I go to the cinema, I'm often frustrated because I can guess exactly what is going to happen about ten minutes into the screening. So, when I'm working on a subject, I'm always looking for the element of surprise.
I'm very much of the opinion that theatre is a collective art form, not just one person's vision.
Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If in your bold creative way you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe.
Life is very nice, but it lacks form. It's the aim of art to give it some.
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