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I think Kurosawa was one of the first storytelling geniuses who began to change the narrative structure of films.

Kurosawa is the sensei, the Shakespeare, of filmmaking.

The expected vertical line of Ikiru's narrative breaks when Kurosawa does a flash-forward in the middle of the film.

Kurosawa is my hero, and I've taught courses on his films, and I love what he does, and 'Rashomon' is, I think, his second greatest film after 'Ikiru.'

It's about not letting the internal enemy, the real enemy, have his way because the more he does the stronger he becomes. The film's about the devastating results that can manifest from the internal enemy being unbridled and allowed to unleash chaos.

What likelihood is there of corrupting a man who has no ambition?

The bad end unhappily, the good unluckily. That is what tragedy means.

It's the unusual leading man. Most of the Hollywood leading men are powerful and capable and strong, heroes. He has this vulnerability, he's fragile, he struggles to find a way to live from day to day that we can identify with, that we can understand.

For many years, my favorite director has been the Japanese giant Akira Kurosawa.

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.