Passages

[John Cope]

Still hope and fully expect his score for BR2049 to leak at some point. Maybe now sooner rather than later. Having it replaced by Zimmer's fine but generic and intentionally derivative one must have been devastating (same more or less for his experience on mother!).

[Gaddis]

John Gavin

Not a major talent by any means, but yet still, Psycho, Spartacus, and two wonderful Douglas Sirk films. Not bad.

[FrauBlucher]

Vic Damone

[fdm]

Tom Rapp

[MichaelB]

Peter Hutchings, critic and historian who made a major contribution towards serious studies of English Gothic cinema in general and Hammer films and Terence Fisher in particular.

(Not to be confused with the film director Peter Hutchings, who as far as I'm aware is still very much alive.)

[Dr Amicus]

Peter Hutchings, critic and historian who made a major contribution towards serious studies of English Gothic cinema in general and Hammer films and Terence Fisher in particular.

(Not to be confused with the film director Peter Hutchings, who as far as I'm aware is still very much alive.)

His books were a major part of my life when I was completing my Doctorate on Amicus. His book, the frankly misnamed Hammer and Beyond (it doesn't really go much beyond Hammer) is clearly a response to Pirie's A Heritage of Horrror by moving beyond the more purely auteurist approach of the earlier work. I often disagreed with it, but it's certainly provocative. I found the narrower his topic, the more valuable the result - his book on Terence Fisher is superior to Dixon's, and his book on Fisher's Dracula is as good as pretty much anything in the BFI Classics.

And then, one of the "minor changes" I was asked to make after my Viva was to reconsider my chapter on Freddie Francis in light of his chapter on Roy Ward Baker in British Cinema Past and Present. Actually, looking back on it, I can't remember why he wasn't asked to be my external examiner - he would have been an obvious choice.

[Feego]

Kenneth Haigh

[antnield]

Idrissa Ouedraogo.

[gcgiles1dollarbin]

Sorry to hear that. I saw Yaaba in St. Louis, MO, when I was 21 (probably '92), and it was one of the eye-openers for me with regard to the extent of "world" cinema and its unsuspected treasures and experiences beyond my insulated life. I haven't seen it since, but at the time, I thought it was an incredibly moving story.

[colinr0380]

That is very sad news. I have not had the chance to see Yabba, but the three early 90s films which followed - Tilaï (The Law), Samba Traoré and Le cri du coeur (set in France) - are as important to African filmmaking as those of Ousmane Sembene. Wryly satirical and sociological too with an ever present sense of trying to place their specific stories into historical contexts.

[thirtyframesasecond]

I really liked The Heart's Cry, the metaphorical nature of it is really well done. And it's a good companion to Sembene's Black Girl.

[flyonthewall2983]

Billy Graham

[feckless boy]

Ren Osugi. Heart attack apparently. Probably mostly known for his appearances in Audition, Sonatine, Maborosi and the amazing Ozu-Pinku homage Abnormal Family: Older Brother's Bride.

[colinr0380]

Here's one of his big scenes in Hana-bi.

He's all over Japanese cinema, usually in supporting roles and in the genre end of things, everything from The Guard From Underground (Kiyoshi Kurosawa's first film) to one of the numerous cameos in Shin Godzilla! He's the lead in Takashi Miike's MPD (Multiple Personality Detective) Psycho series (and many, many other films by the director), in Yoichi Sai's Doing Time, Shunichi Nagasaki's Shikoku, Sion Sono's: Exte: Hair Extensions and so many more films.

Though of course he perhaps makes one of his strongest impressions as the spiral obsessed father coming to a literally twisted end in Uzumaki!

[domino harvey]

Nanette Fabray

[GaryC]

Emma Chambers, aged fifty-three.

[Big Ben]

I know of the show by reputation and I feel awful reading that. Natural causes at fifty three feels like a very vague way of giving some of the idea but not quite all of it.

[colinr0380]

Her character's most memorable moments in The Vicar of Dibley were the post credits scenes in which the lovably dumb and naive Alice failed to see the funny side of a joke that she was told! (And we know that she's a DC Comics fan!)

Film-wise, around the same time Chambers turned up in a supporting role in the Richard Curtis-scripted Notting Hill

[colinr0380]

Prolific Bollywood actress Sridevi at 53, who has just under 300 film credits to her name. Perhaps her most famous role was in the title role of 1989's Chandni, directed by Yash Chopra (though that might be just because it was the first Bollywood film that I saw, and which effectively taught me the two fundamental rules of that cinema: 1. All the singing and dancing; and 2. That there is almost always a tragic ending!). She retired in the late 90s but made a recent comeback in 2012 with English Vinglish.

[mfunk9786]

Kevin Smith made a Twitter post stating that he had a 100% blockage of his “widow-maker” artery and had a massive heart attack last night - he was perhaps minutes away from death had he not cancelled a speaking engagement and rushed to the hospital.

[DarkImbecile]

Apparently, Chris Pratt is getting a ton of shit for offering prayers for Smith on Twitter, which seems wildly inappropriate (the shit-giving, not the prayers, even if I personally think they’re useless). This isn’t a school shooting, and he’s not a politician offering his personal concern in lieu of doing his actual job to confront the issue. I don’t know if he knows Smith personally or not, but either way, it’s exponentially more insulting and tone-deaf to criticize someone for caring about another person in their own way than anything Pratt did.

[cdnchris]

Yeah, I'm not sure what the issue is really here. I'm not a "prayer" guy and I get the outrage when it's someone who can actually change something hiding behind the "prayers", but this is a personal well-wishing. What's he supposed to do, give Smith his heart? Remove the blockage? It's so weird. Now the guy will probably be afraid to wish anyone else well.

[mfunk9786]

Smith attracts a certain audience (particularly now, in 2018) that tends to be sort of um.......... man, how to put this........... I'll say "immature." If you're a Kevin Smith fan in 2018 you are absolutely looking up from your Batman comic to inform someone that their religious beliefs are some kind of "flying spaghetti bacon monster." I wouldn't expect a ton of nuance there.

[hearthesilence]

What's he supposed to do, give Smith his heart?

You made me remember this.

[cdnchris]

Stupid sexy Flanders.