Passages

[Feego]

A couple of passings from earlier in the year that flew under our radar:

Libero de Rienzo, probably best remembered outside of Italy as the older sister's sleazy boyfriend in Fat Girl

Marilyn Eastman, of Night of the Living Dead fame

[Matt]

TCM has started airing their year-end “TCM Remembers” video (not posted online yet). It’s long this year

[Feego]

I think it's one of TCM's best memorials in years, and of all things, they selected a cover version of R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" as the musical accompaniment. It's literally the first rendition I've heard of that song that didn't set my teeth on edge.

[colinr0380]

A couple of passings from earlier in the year that flew under our radar:

Libero de Rienzo, probably best remembered outside of Italy as the older sister's sleazy boyfriend in Fat Girl

Marilyn Eastman, of Night of the Living Dead fame

Thank you for noting these Feego, as they had completely passed me by. Libero de Rienzo's role in Fat Girl is a pretty big one since the centrepiece of that film is just a single set three-hander as his character cajoles the sister into pushing further and further in their heavy petting whilst the other sister watches under the pretext of being asleep. I have often wondered why he in particular did not turn up for Breillat's semi-autobiographical comic film about filmmaking that immediately followed Fat Girl and appears to be pretty obviously referencing back to the making of the previous film, especially since it casts Roxanne Mesquida in the same kind of role, Sex Is Comedy. Casting someone else as the male actor (and to be honest spending more time quibbling about a prosthetic penis as showing the male actor's concerns being silly when contrasted to taking the concerns of the female actress deadly seriously) felt both revealing of how little attention needed to be paid to the male actor (i.e. he's interchangeable, if not entirely disposable) and damningly with little to say about him when the focus briefly does alight on his so-called 'issues'.

That really made Sex Is Comedy feel as if it entirely failed as a film about the important area of consent and treating all cast members with respect, when it was entirely swapping out one half of the couple! Its the most disappointing film of Breillat's career, because of being so seemingly unintentionally revealing, in that sense. Although I am entirely open to justifications as to why Sex Is Comedy turned out the way it did, from scheduling conflicts to Libero de Rienzo not wanting to return to his role (though it would have been interesting to hear the reasons as to why). But if either participant had not been willing to return (this would have been just as big an issue the other way around if Roxanne Mesquida had not returned), it might have been best to not have made such a big deal of the same prosthetic penis returning, as if to emphasise the interchangeability and that this was the only 'important' part necessary for the film, such that whatever male actor could be simply brought in to strap it on and wield to much the same effect!

(I should say that I love Breillat's films in general and she kind of got around this aspect later on in the far better Anatomy of Hell by going entirely abstract with regards to "The Man" and "The Woman" and by having the large appendage at least attached to its owner by casting adult film actor Rocco Siffredi!)
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I also noted from Mr Sausage's posted list of literature related deaths that Takao Saitô died on the 24th September. This was not the Kurosawa cinematographer of the same name (who died in 2014) but the creator of the ultimate hitman in the Golgo 13 manga (the longest running manga, having started in October 1968 and still going up to the present) that was adapted into a 1972 film and a 1977 Sonny Chiba starring vehicle, before the 1983 animated feature (the first anime to incorporate CGI moments, most on display in its James Bond-style opening credit sequence!), and most successful of all the 2008-9 50 episode TV series that I have gushed over at length a few times on the anime thread.

Here's a great Bonsai Pop episode on Golgo 13

Beyond Golgo 13 he also wrote the story for the 1972 Toshio Matsuda film Shadow Hunters.

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I also note that Anthony Sher also passed away on the 2nd December. He was in few films (making appearances in Shakespeare in Love and the 2010 version of The Wolfman), but I really want to highlight his amazing performance in the BBC's adaptation of a J.G. Ballard short story, Home.

[Aunt Peg]

Il DIvo singer Carlos Marín https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/ ... o-hospital

[Feego]

TCM has started airing their year-end “TCM Remembers” video (not posted online yet). It’s long this year

Now posted on their YouTube channel.

[Aunt Peg]

Actress Sally Ann Howes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ann_Howes

[willoneill]

TCM has started airing their year-end “TCM Remembers” video (not posted online yet). It’s long this year

Now posted on their YouTube channel.

Thanks. I don't have cable so this was the first chance I had to see it. BTW, the Shiny Happy People cover is by Canadian band Reuben and the Dark if anyone is curious.

[therewillbeblus]

Alicia Witt's parents were both found dead in their home after a welfare check initiated by Witt. Awful

[hearthesilence]

Joan Didion

[Matt]

Joan Didion

I had a terrible gut feeling this was coming. After the passings of Eve Babitz, bell hooks, Greg Tate, and Janet Malcolm this year, it seemed the Reaper had it in for the great cultural commentators. The world is poorer without them in it, but may their work continue to enrich the lives of those who read it.

[domino harvey]

Desmond Tutu

[Never Cursed]

Jean-Marc Vallée, director on such film and TV projects as Dallas Buyers Club, Wild, Big Little Lies, and Sharp Objects, at just 58. His death (the cause of which is not being reported as of yet) was apparently unexpected to his friends and family.

[domino harvey]

I've only seen Dallas Buyers Club and Liste noire, but while I didn't care much for the latter, I think DBC is a best case scenario for a mainstream Based on a True Story biopic. RIP

[swo17]

Woah, I mostly knew him from C.R.A.Z.Y., which this is

[therewillbeblus]

I don't care much for any of his work, but I won't deny he was a talented filmmaker, and it's simply a tragedy to see anyone go so young, artist or otherwise

[senseabove]

Wayne Thiebaud

[colinr0380]

Woah, I mostly knew him from C.R.A.Z.Y., which this is

C.R.A.Z.Y. is still my favourite of his films, though he also went on to The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt and written by Julian Fellowes in his post-Gosford Park just pre-Downton Abbey purple period. Unfortunately after Dallas Buyer's Club I found what should have been lightly-worn metaphors getting more and more bluntly tortuous and shriller, such as in Wild or Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal.

[mfunk9786]

NFL legend John Madden

[FrauBlucher]

NFL legend John Madden

He along with Howard Cosell were instrumental in helping the NFL become America's game.

[Jack Kubrick]

Harry Reid

[hearthesilence]

According to Dave Alvin's Facebook page, Bruce Bromberg died last night at age 80. Bromberg produced quite a few notable blues and roots albums including those by Lightnin' Hopkins, Ted Hawkins, Robert Cray, Dave Alvin, Chris Thomas King and many others, many through HighTone Records which he co-founded with Larry Sloven in 1983. (Robert Cray came up in the '80s through HighTone, peaking with his breakthrough Strong Persuader, which Bromberg also produced.)

[domino harvey]

Jean-Marc Vallée, director on such film and TV projects as Dallas Buyers Club, Wild, Big Little Lies, and Sharp Objects, at just 58. His death (the cause of which is not being reported as of yet) was apparently unexpected to his friends and family.

Cause of death was heart attack

[Rayon Vert]

There will be a coroner's investigation but I guess some sources are saying what they think is likely the cause.

[hearthesilence]

There will be a coroner's investigation but I guess some sources are saying what they think is likely the cause.

I don't know a whole lot about his personal life, but are they speculating the Wim Hoff method? It was mentioned in quite a few obituaries.