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A Tarkovsky/Kurosawa Timeline

The question has been raised as to when and where did Tarkovsky first encounter Kurosawa. SATO Kimitoshi of Japan has done some research for us, and we here present some preliminary results.

• Kurosawa was in Rome, in the Alps, and in Venice in 1960.
• He was in Manila in 1966.
• In February of 1971, Sergei Gerasimov, then-Mosfilm secretary general, visited Japan, and suggested that Kurosawa shoot a movie in Russia. Kurosawa had two plans: From The House of The Dead by Dostoevsky and Dersu Uzala by Arseniev. And he picked up the latter.
• Kurosawa visited Russia, attending the Moscow Film Festival in July. Dodeskaden was shown and won the Special Prize there.
• He returned home by way of Leningrad, and Europe.
• Around this time, there was a rumor among Soviet film people that Kurosawa was going to shoot Dersu Uzala.
• Kurosawa attempts suicide on 22 December 1971. It fails.
• Solaris opens in Japan in 1972.
• In 1973, he was in Europe in February, and came to an agreement with Mosfilm about Dersu Uzala in Moscow on 14 March, 1973.
• He attended Moscow Movie Festival on 9 July. On a return trip to Japan, he went location scouting in Siberia.
• On 11 December he, together with his crew, arrived in Russia.
• In 1974, he returned to Japan for a brief period, starting 8 February.
• In 1975, he came home to Japan on 19 June.
• Dersu Uzala opens in Japan on 2 August, 1975.
• In September the film was released in Russia, and Kurosawa and his wife visited Russia again to attend the Film Festival and made a trip around Russia. He was at that time in an exile to Russia, almost literally, as a movie director, for he was deprived of the opportunity to shoot in Japan.

Other clues:

• Kurosawa writes in an article for the Asahi Shinbun Newspaper on 13 May, 1977 (also reproduced in the Solaris pamphlet) to celebrate Solaris opening in Japan: "My first encounter with Tarkovsky was when I attended my welcome luncheon at the Mosfilm during my first visit to Soviet Russia." He also mentions that Tarkovsky was shooting Solaris in Moscow. And after the luncheon, he visited the Solaris set. That story is found here.
• See also excerpts from A Dream is a Genius
• Yoshio Shirai a movie critic writes [Reference: Solaris pamphlet, Japan 1978]: "Tarkovsky came here in the autumn of 1971. He was with Yusov, quite naturally, as he was to shoot here."
• And the caption of the Kurosawa+Tarkovsky photo reads, "With Andrei Tarkovsky who came to Japan in 1971." [Reference: this photo is found in the Asahi Kurosawa article referred to above, as well as in the Solaris pamphlet.]

The most probable assumption:

Kurosawa met Tarkovsky in Moscow on his first visit in July 1971, and Tarkovsky then came to Japan to re-pay the visit, in a sense, that same fall.

Further clues, from Tarkovsky's own diary (Martyrolog):

13 September 1971, Zvenigorod: On 24 September we're flying to Japan. [...] 22nd — 8th October: Japan [...].

19 September 1971, Zvenigorod: We are to leave for Japan on 24th, but we are not through with shooting the sun. The weather is awful. The sun scenes are going to have to be handed over, to be filmed while we're away. We have to decide what we're going to film in Japan, and how. The question is — exactly what?

14 October 1971, Moscow: We came back from Japan on the 10th. Utterly exhausted. And with my nerves shattered. Masses of impressions. But it's better not to write them down straightaway; let them settle a bit. We filmed a certain amount for Berton's drives through the "town."

We may gather AT stayed in Japan from 24 September through 10 October 1970. It is perhaps somewhat perplexing that AT never alludes to his visit to Kurosawa in Japan. Kurosawa is first mentioned in the Martyrolog on 30 December 1973:

30 December, Moscow: I saw Kurosawa at the studio, we had dinner together. He is in an appalling position: they won't give him any Kodak film, and keep assuring him that Soviet film is wonderful. They have wished Tolya Kuznetsov onto him. His team is frightful, informers and cretins. He must somehow be warned that everybody is lying to him.

Footnote: Mr Yamada writes another piece on Andrei Tarkovsky in the 1978 Solaris pamphlet. The most remarkable aspect is his discovery that Andrei is not what he was on their first encounter, in July of 1963. In 1963 he was young, mercurial and talked a lot. In 1971 Mr Yamada met him at the welcome party at the Embassy. He almost failed to recognize Andrei, initially. Andrei looked fatigued and thin, talked little, and appeared quite nervous. Silences slipped into the conversation. Mr Yamada gathers he has suffered a lot during the 8 years in between; possibly a "personal Rublov experience."