Indie Eye: Memoriam - Blogs

Memoriam

Jeanne-Claude, 1935-2009.

By Vadim Rizov on 11/19/2009

Filed under: Memoriam

Jeanne-Claude -- Christo's collaborator and partner -- died today in Manhattan at the age of 74. It was fitting, in a way, not only because the artist pair have been residents of the city since 1964, but because their last big completed project was "The Gates," which turned Central Park's walkways into a series of orange vinyl doorways and drapes, portways of color livening up an especially dreary winter. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been shorthanded as the people who "wrap" things, which only goes so far. A bigger part of their projects was to rendering the familiar temporarily strange, whether... MORE »

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John Hughes, 1950-2009.

By Alison Willmore on 08/06/2009

Filed under: Memoriam

Variety is reporting that John Hughes has passed away at the age of 59. Hughes was the man responsible for writing and directing some of the defining films of the teen genre and, without question, of the '80s: "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," not to mention comedy "Planes, Trains & Automobiles." The last film Hughes directed was 1991's "Curly Sue" -- not what one would describe as a success -- a few years after which he pretty much withdrew from the public eye and returned to the Midwest, continuing to write screenplays and occasionally act... MORE »

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Ann Savage, 1921-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 12/29/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

Ann Savage, 1940s uber femme fatale, passed away on Christmas day at age 87. Last seen playing "Mother" in Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg," casting that was halfway between a cinephile in-joke and the perfect measure of Maddin's favorite Freudian themes, Savage was probably best known for her role in Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 "Detour." A cultish B-movie that was shot in six days, "Detour" is burdened with obvious budget constraints, technical mistakes and outlandish characterizations, all of which somehow magically work in its favor to make it an unforgettable 68-minute noir landmark. Tom Neal plays Al Roberts, a piano player... MORE »

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Rudy Ray Moore, 1927-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 10/20/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

The man was Dolemite, not to mention otherwise funny like burning. From Mike White: Moore passed away at age 81 on Sunday October 19, 2008. Via rhymed couplets, free form verse, and dirty versions of the alphabet, Moore entertained audiences for decades. His best-remembered routine, "The Signifying Monkey," continues to echo through the world of popular culture. Without two turn tables, and only a mic, Moore rocked the world as Dolemite. [Photo: "Dolemite," Dimension Pictures, 1975] + Dolemite to Kick God's Ass (Impossible Funky)... MORE »

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David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 09/15/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

I read "Infinite Jest" in college. A friend passed it along, told me it was something she knew I'd like. Hefting the 1000-plus pages, I thought that I was duty bound, therefore, to hate it, and started reading right away to prove so -- such is the unfortunate person I was. And still am. I ended up finishing the book in three days, at the expense of class, sleep and any social interaction, devouring it in great gulps of prose, propping it open on the kitchen counter as I poked at some occasional ramen on the stove and unsteadily suspending... MORE »

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September.

By Alison Willmore on 09/11/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

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Goodbye, grey market.

By Alison Willmore on 09/02/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

Mike White has pulled the plug on SuperHappyFun, the great grey market movie site crouched under the dubious protection of the Berne Act with bootleg offerings of the obscure, the commercially undesirable, the unavailable and the out of print. He eulogizes: In actuality, I loved that the titles on SuperHappyFun were being ousted by legitimate release. My dream is that all of the two thousand films we once carried would be as easy to get as the latest hot release. I want a world where the grey market isn't necessary; where all movies are available via a massive movie server... MORE »

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Don LaFontaine, 1940-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 09/02/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

You do know who he is. Don LaFontaine was the voice of the voiceover for over 5,000 commercials, network spots and, of course, movie trailers, promising in tones of comforting, gravelly authority forthcoming drama, laughs, action and tears, almost certainly taking place "In a world..." From CNN: His favorite work was one he did for the 1980 film "The Elephant Man," he said in interviews, but whether the film was Oscar-caliber or a bomb waiting to blow, he handled every assignment equally. "My philosophy is that you have to really believe what you're reading, even if you think the film's... MORE »

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Mourning Manny Farber.

By Alison Willmore on 08/20/2008

Filed under: Critic watch, Memoriam

More on the passing of critic Manny Farber: J. Hoberman at the Village Voice (alongside a reprint of his 1981 essay "Termite Makes Right"): Farber wasn't like other critics. He didn't proselytize and he didn't create systems. Rather, he articulated his idiosyncratic perception, which is to say: He had a sensibility. Farber was as punchy and hardboiled, at least in his prose, as Sam Fuller (a director he admired) and as masterful a vernacular stylist as S. J. Perelman (who, knowledgeable as he was, nodded to Farber in one of his pieces). As was said of Perelman, before they made... MORE »

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Termite art.

By Alison Willmore on 08/18/2008

Filed under: Critic watch, Memoriam

Manny Farber, critic and artist, passed away last night at the age of 91. From Glenn Kenny at Some Came Running: What I found, and find, most valuable in his criticism is his ability to apprehend the entirety of a film--he got it from every angle. He could appreciate a B war picture in the same sense that the guy on the street could, while fully comprehending its value as a work of modern/contemporary art. I'm away from my study, so I can't grab a copy of Space to quote from it willy-nilly. But I can say this: I doubt... MORE »

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Youssef Chahine, 1926-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 07/28/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

After suffering a brain hemorrhage several weeks ago, Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine passed away on Sunday at the age of 82. A.O. Scott at the New York Times: Whether his subject was the domestic struggles of poor and middle-class Cairenes, his own youth in Alexandria, the building of the Aswan Dam or the life of the medieval philosopher Averroes, Mr. Chahine's films reflected his cosmopolitan, humanistic sensibility, as well as his deep interest in Egyptian and Middle Eastern history and society. In France, where Mr. Chahine's films found an admiring audience, news of his death brought a tribute from the... MORE »

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Cyd Charisse, 1922-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 06/17/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

Cyd Charisse, the impossibly long-limbed actress and dancer (born Tula Ellice Finklea) who starred alongside Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in classic musicals like "The Band Wagon" and "Singin' in the Rain," passed away today. From the AP: Her height was 5 feet, 6 inches, but in high heels and full-length stockings, she seemed serenely tall, and she moved with extraordinary grace. Her flawless beauty and jet-black hair contributed to an aura of perfection that Astaire described in his 1959 memoir, "Steps in Time," as "beautiful dynamite." You can watch her dance with Kelly at the end of "Singin' in... MORE »

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Observations on the passing of Charlton Heston, movie star.

By Alison Willmore on 04/07/2008

Filed under: In quotes, Memoriam

"Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing 'Ben-Hur' and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, has died. He was 84." —AP "Few films thrilled me -- or scared me -- as much as 'Soylent Green,' in which his character realizes that the stuff keeping the human race alive is made from other human beings: 'Soylent Green is people!' By then, he had played Moses and saved an entire people from destruction. Things didn't look good in 'Soylent Green,' but somehow, I thought, surely Charlton... MORE »

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Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 03/19/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

Ach, more death. Inventor, science fiction novelist and co-writer of "2001: A Space Odyssey" Arthur C. Clarke has passed away at age 90, after struggling with post-polio syndrome for almost 20 years. In December of last year, on his 90th birthday, Clarke recorded a goodbye message to his fans that can be found here on YouTube, saying "I now spend a good part of my day dreaming of times past, present and future...Being completely wheelchaired doesn't stop my mind from roaming the universe. On the contrary, in my time I've been very fortunate to have seen many of my dreams... MORE »

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Anthony Minghella, 1954-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 03/18/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

Anthony Minghella, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Truly Madly Deeply," has passed away at age 54, reports the BBC — no further details yet as to the cause of his death. Minghella was a director, writer and a playwright who was also chairman of the British Film Institute. He'd just finished up filming an adaptation of "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," with Jill Scott as the lead, for British television. The last film of his in theaters was 2006's little-seen "Breaking and Entering," with Jude Law as an architect who gets involved... MORE »

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Kon Ichikawa, 1915-2008.

By Alison Willmore on 02/14/2008

Filed under: Memoriam

Kon Ichikawa, the Japanese director responsible for, among other things, the great anti-war films "The Burmese Harp" and "Fires on the Plain," passed away yesterday in Tokyo. From Douglas Martin in the New York Times:Mr. Ichikawa's career reached what many consider its high point when Americans were streaming to art-cinema houses in the 1950s and '60s to see movies by emerging masters like Ingmar Bergman. In those years some critics rated Mr. Ichikawa on a level with Akira Kurosawa. He was "once hailed as one of the world's greatest directors," Olaf MÃ¶ller wrote in 2001 in Film Comment. From... MORE »