On Creativity and Age: Kurosawa’s Letter to Bergman
When does artistic creation truly begin? When does it really end? Through a moving letter, Akira Kurosawa presented the great Ingmar Bergman with this enigma.
Towards the end of The Writer and his Ghosts, Ernesto Sabato devotes a fragment of the book to the moment when a person who has decided to incur in writing as a trade, has given into the temptation of fiction and has to write. This is the ‘moment’ in its existential sense.
Is it during adolescence, when many of us suddenly realise that we do not know the meaning of life, or the purpose of our own? Might it be during our maturity, when we have amassed sufficient experiences so that, perhaps, we are able to endure literature? Or, is it actually in old age, when the passion of yesteryear is barely an ember and the course of our life has become so calm that we can look through its sediments?
A paradox lies between the impulse to say, the need to express —which characterises every artist— and the choice of that which wants to be said, that raw material which in its authentic expression (and only then), is capable of transforming into the work when it has surged from the core of subjectivity, building a bridge with reality and the world.
In July 1988, Ingmar Bergman turned seventy. As a somewhat conclusive gesture, the director published his memoirs entitled The Magic Lantern, where he asserted: “I probably do mourn the fact that I no longer make films.”
In response to the latter statement, another director of a similar genius, Akira Kurosawa, sent him a letter where he questioned this abandonment and, in turn, he shared with Bergman a few reasons why he believed the Swedish director should think twice before leaving his film career behind.
Dear Mr. Bergman,
Please let me congratulate you upon your seventieth birthday.
Your work deeply touches my heart every time I see it and I have learned a lot from your works and have been encouraged by them. I would like you to stay in good health to create more wonderful movies for us.
In Japan, there was a great artist called Tessai Tomioka who lived in the Meiji Era (the late 19th century). This artist painted many excellent pictures while he was still young, and when he reached the age of eighty, he suddenly started painting pictures which were much superior to the previous ones, as if he were in magnificent bloom. Every time I see his paintings, I fully realize that a human is not really capable of creating really good works until he reaches eighty.
A human is born a baby, becomes a boy, goes through youth, the prime of life and finally returns to being a baby before he closes his life. This is, in my opinion, the most ideal way of life.
I believe you would agree that a human becomes capable of producing pure works, without any restrictions, in the days of his second babyhood.
I am now seventy-seven (77) years old and am convinced that my real work is just beginning.
Let us hold out together for the sake of movies.
With the warmest regards,
Akira Kurosawa
Related Articles
Pictorial spiritism (a woman's drawings guided by a spirit)
There are numerous examples in the history of self-taught artists which suggest an interrogation of that which we take for granted within the universe of art. Such was the case with figures like
Astounding fairytale illustrations from Japan
Fairy tales tribal stories— are more than childish tales. Such fictions, the characters of which inhabit our earliest memories, aren’t just literary works with an aesthetic and pleasant purpose. They
A cinematic poem and an ode to water: its rhythms, shapes and textures
Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water. - John Keats Without water the equation of life, at least life as we know it, would be impossible. A growing hypothesis holds that water, including the
Watch beauty unfold through science in this "ode to a flower" (video)
The study of the microscopic is one of the richest, most aesthetic methods of understanding the world. Lucky is the scientist who, upon seeing something beautiful, is able to see all of the tiny
To invent those we love or to see them as they are? Love in two of the movies' favorite scenes
So much has been said already, of “love” that it’s difficult to add anything, much less something new. It’s possible, though, perhaps because even if you try to pass through the sieve of all our
This app allows you to find and preserve ancient typographies
Most people, even those who are far removed from the world of design, are familiar with some type of typography and its ability to transform any text, help out dyslexics or stretch an eight page paper
The secrets of the mind-body connection
For decades medical research has recognized the existence of the placebo effect — in which the assumption that a medication will help produces actual physical improvements. In addition to this, a
The sea as infinite laboratory
Much of our thinking on the shape of the world and the universe derives from the way scientists and artists have approached these topics over time. Our fascination with the mysteries of the
Sharing and collaborating - natural movements of the creative being
We might sometimes think that artistic or creative activity is, in essence, individualistic. The Genesis of Judeo-Christian tradition portrays a God whose decision to create the world is as vehement
John Malkovich becomes David Lynch (and other characters)
John Malkovich and David Lynch are, respectively, the actor and film director who’ve implicitly or explicitly addressed the issues of identity and its porous barriers through numerous projects. Now