Kurosawa waited for the right cloud
The making of Ran, 1985.
Akira Kurosawa hand-painted every frame of Ran as watercolour storyboards before a single scene was shot. Weather delays were not delays to him — they were the film waiting to be ready. Crew members recall the director sitting silently on a hillside, watching clouds, refusing to roll until the sky matched the painting in his lap.
Editor's Note
Directors who wait for the right light tend to make films the rest of us wait years to see.
