criterionforum.org

Lawrence Paull, production designer for Blade Runner and Back To The Future

Vojtěch Jasný, who like his almost exact contemporary František Vláčil just missed out on being part of the Czechoslovak New Wave generation, and consequently enjoyed much less international attention, although When the Cat Comes (1963) won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, and All My Good Countrymen (1968) is quite correctly regarded as one of the supreme masterpieces of Czech cinema.

I met him a decade or so ago - he emigrated to the US after the Soviet invasion of 1968 and consequently spoke perfect English - and he was delightful company, albeit with a rather disconcerting resemblance to the protagonist of Pixar's then recently-released Up.

R.I.P. I've only seen When the Cat Comes, which is a spectacular film and one I'm surprised is still so obscure. I believe it will gain many, many fans if it ever gets a blu-ray release.

Jean Douchet, Cahiers critic, director, cinéphile par excellence, cinema historian, film professor, cine-club animator

RIP, one of the OGs. He directed a few shorts as well

hearthesilence wrote: Fri Nov 22, 2019 4:18 pm Michael J. Pollard, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for Bonnie and Clyde

Not being insenstivie but I thought he had already been long passed. His very small (basically cameo) role in House of 1000 Corpses is fun to watch

Slight correction: Pollard did not win the Oscar, losing instead to George Kennedy for Cool Hand Luke. His performance, though, is the source of a favorite non sequitur between my mom and me when we'll just randomly quote his line, "Are there any pictures of Meerna Loy? She's my favorite picture star."

Arthur Marks.

Jonathan Miller, a ubiquitous presence in British culture for six full decades - he was one of the original Beyond the Fringe quartet alongside Alan Bennett (now the only survivor), Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and went on to become a renowned theatre, opera and television director (plus one cinema feature: Take a Girl Like You) and also a prolific TV presenter.

His TV output includes two remarkable adaptations, Alice in Wonderland (1966) and Whistle and I'll Come to You (1968), and he also pretty much single-handedly rescued the BBC Television Shakespeare project at the turn of the 1980s when he took over as overall producer from the far more conservative Cedric Messina. While still hamstrung by ground rules agreed with the US co-production partners, which amongst other things meant that his approaches to people like Ingmar Bergman and Peter Brook were rebuffed, Miller's productions (some as director) were noticeably more imaginative and adventurous.

Much like Bergman and Antonioni dying on the same day in 2007, there's something weirdly fitting about two of the great UK-based television polymaths doing the same thing today.

Apart from an occasional stint as a film critic (I remember him referring to a film "directed by Walerian Borowczyk after his talent was removed by surgery") and involvement with the two Barry McKenzie comedies in the early 1970s, Clive James made no significant contribution to the big screen, but on television and the printed page he was close to ubiquitous for many decades - both as one of Britain's greatest TV critics (Nancy Banks-Smith is his only serious rival) and a hugely prolific presenter. In fact, his popularity and tendency towards jocular self-deprecation (he was always acutely aware that Australians were perceived to have a lower social and cultural status than native Britons) tended to undermine the fact that he was a very fine writer indeed, and no mean poet either.

(UPDATE: it seems that he died a few days ago but his family postponed the announcement.)

Here's a Newsnight video with Clive James on poetry.

I used to embarrassingly get Clive James mixed up with Clive Anderson for the longest time, maybe just because they were both ubiquitous on television in my childhood. I think I was most familiar early on with Clive James because of his New Year's Eve round ups on the BBC (that review of the 80s episode has a quite awkwardly relevant zinger right now: "Would Prince Charles ever meet a girl he could fall in love with; and would Prince Andrew ever meet one he couldn't?")

He also belatedly discovered the joys of TV series box sets.

35 year old actor Godfrey Gao, of a heart attack while filming an “extreme” Chinese competition show

Gao was in one of the lesser known Young Adult franchise starters that never got a sequel The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and has since headlined a few films including The Jade Pendant, Legend of the Ancient Sword (directed by Renny Harlin?!?!?) and most recently opposite Shu Qi in alien invasion sci-fi Shanghai Fortress.

MichaelB wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 1:11 pm Jonathan Miller, a ubiquitous presence in British culture for six full decades - he was one of the original Beyond the Fringe quartet alongside Alan Bennett (now the only survivor), Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and went on to become a renowned theatre, opera and television director (plus one cinema feature: Take a Girl Like You) and also a prolific TV presenter.

And whatever else he could find to occupy his fervid brain. Years ago, I saw a fascinating exhibition of his at the Tate about mirrors in art, that encompassed all kinds of different aspects on the concept, from technology (e.g. the use of optical tools by painters), to self-portraiture, to op art.

His psychedelic version of Alice is a truly remarkable bit of television (and, I guess, literary criticism).

I love Miller's dictum that successful directing is just reminding the actors what they already know.
I once had a face to face with him when he dropped his credit card in the South Bank café which I retrieved for him. There was a frozen minute when he stood there waiting for me to say something but of course nothing was forthcoming as my brain was in search mode for something erudite. Happened to me once before when I realised I was sitting next to Richard Thompson on top of a no 73 bus for 20 minutes.

zedz wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2019 7:58 pm Years ago, I saw a fascinating exhibition of his at the Tate about mirrors in art, that encompassed all kinds of different aspects on the concept, from technology (e.g. the use of optical tools by painters), to self-portraiture, to op art.

I would have loved to see that Do you remember what year or if a catalogue was available?

Jonathan Miller’s reflection exhibition at the Tate was accompanied by a typically brilliant series of short films entitled ON REFLECTION. It’s on YouTube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dYPPaNWwIFQ

ethel wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 2:16 am Jonathan Miller’s reflection exhibition at the Tate was accompanied by a typically brilliant series of short films entitled ON REFLECTION. It’s on YouTube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dYPPaNWwIFQ

Great stuff Ethel Thanks

Joan Staley, actress and Playboy Playmate, wonderful in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken and many, many other films and tv shows.

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:
I would have loved to see that Do you remember what year or if a catalogue was available?

Actually the exhibition entitled Mirror Image: Jonathan Miller on Refelection was held at the National Gallery from 16 September to 13 December 1998. You can still find the catalogue here or here. A contemporary interview.

Record executive Joe Smith. Remarkable career, he had a big hand in freeing Van Morrison from his dire situation with Bang Records and signing him with Warner Bros. He later ignited Bonnie Raitt's career when he signed her to Capitol Records (where she cut three unexpectedly huge multiplatinum hit albums). At the same time, I think he's the Deadhead exec who buried Paul's Boutique, telling the Beastie Boys that the new Donnie Osmond record was their priority.

Smith appears in the recent Linda Ronstadt documentary, acknowledging his bad calls in dissuading her from recording the hugely successful Riddle albums and the canciones.