I saw Ran, recently, a film in which Kurosawa adapts Shakespeare's King Lear. The movie proved too immense to review after just one viewing, but one episode struck me particularly: the way Kurosawa startles us when one of the main characters is shot.
To accomplish this effect, Kurosawa places a castle in flames in the center of the shot, so that even though it occupies the background, we give our attention to the burning building. To the configuration he then adds two characters, each on a side of the frame, and positions them in the foreground. The frame presents a perfectly structured triangle. What amazes me is that all Kurosawa uses to pull off the effect is depth. By leading our eyes to the back of the shot, he surprises us in the front. No special effects, just masterful directing. This shot achieves the status of a composition—by that word I mean an arrangement of the frame that contributes meaning to the story—and nearly every sustained shot in Ran carries this kind of significant organization. Because his frames are this good consistently, I think you'll struggle to find a better composer of images in the movies.
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