Passages

[flyonthewall2983]

Richard Wright.

[Forrest Taft]

Richard Wright.

Very sad. Never knew he had cancer. Time to give Broken China, his overlooked solo-album, another listen.

[flyonthewall2983]

His first, Wet Dream, has some pretty good moments too. The really sad thing is is that in some of his last interviews, he said he was working on another one. The experience of his tour with Dave Gilmour two years ago rejuvenated his enjoyment of playing again. I posted some videos on the Floyd page in the Non-Cinema Arts section, rather than giving you what's on my mind. I'm still reeling for this and words are hard to find. This one has hit me harder than any other celebrity death this year, bar none.

[Subbuteo]

First Hector now Wright what a terrible week. Richard was allegedly working on an instrumental album. We will now never likely know, very sad day

[Antoine Doinel]

Novelist David Foster Wallace

In film related news, John Krasinski has directed an adaptation of Brief Interviews With Hideous Men.

[mfunk9786]

Which I can only assume will be rushed to theaters upon this news, which is bittersweet news, obviously.

[Michael Kerpan]

Keiko McDonald, one of the leading scholars of Japanese cinema in North America died recently while on sabbatical.

She was especially noted for her work in connecting Japanese literature (and drama) with Japanese cinema.

[Steven H]

I've emailed back and forth with Prof. McDonald many times, and she was always one of the more generous people (especially among scholars) with information and helpful notes (not to mention all the handful of publications she sent me for free without even asking) despite my entirely amateur interest in Japanse film. I value her written work very highly and her text on Shimizu's children films is what helped inspire me to spend ungodly amounts of energy and time tracking his incredibly rewarding stuff down (and I understand she was working on a book about Shimizu at the time of her passing).

Very very sad news... she will be missed.

[peerpee]

I concur with Steven. Prof. McDonald was incredibly generous and helpful to MoC with our recent Mizoguchi releases, in particular AKASEN CHITAI, and we shall miss her very much. How extremely sad.

[sidehacker]

I was actually planning to attend the University of Pittsburgh next fall with the intention of taking many of her courses. Don't know what I'll do now, but yes, she will be missed a great deal.

[flyonthewall2983]

"No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend.

In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten.

He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.

I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on 'Echoes'. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without 'Us and Them' and 'The Great Gig In The Sky', both of which he wrote, what would 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' have been? Without his quiet touch the Album 'Wish You Were Here' would not quite have worked.

In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early Nineties, with 'The Division Bell', his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and it's a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him, (though not to the rest of us)."

David Gilmour, from his official website

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Humberto Solas

Havana, Sep 18 (Prensa Latina) Cuban cinema has lost one of its brightest and most outstanding figures, filmmaker Humberto Solas, who died victim of cancer at age of 66 in Havana.

Cuba regrets the loss of the director of "Lucia", who left us films that represent the birth of the Golden Age of Cuban filmmaking, as "Un hombre de exito" (1986), "El siglo de las luces" (1991), and "Barrio Cuba" (2005).

Solas has bequeathed an everlasting film work to us, in images that outstand for their capacity to express our times, humanity and destiny artistically, as an article published in Granma daily's cultural section read.

He was also a teacher, leaving a legacy of knowledge for present and future generations of film directors and intellectuals that are bound to their people's fate.

Humberto Solas, winner of Cuba's National Film Prize in 2005 for his work, founded in 2003 Gibara's Poor Cinema Festival, open to filmmakers with limited funds.

The funeral services for him are private.

[feckless boy]

Jun Ichikawa. Very sad.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Didn't see that one coming.

Tony Takitani was one of my favorite "rainy day" movies and Tokyo Marigold may well be a masterpiece, whatever that means. Out of the English-subbed films on DVD, I don't think there's a single one that isn't exceptional, and if the critical consensus is to be believed, some of his best work is totally unrepresented.

[colinr0380]

Awful news

[Michael Kerpan]

I'm stunned (and depressed) about the horrible news of Jun Ichikawa's untimely death (which seems like a re-play of the untimely demise of Shinji Somai, at an even earlier age, in 2001). Like Somai, Ichikawa was an exceptionally fine (and sensitive) director who never really got the respect he deserved. (Even after the success, of his Tony Takitani, his subsequent films have never even showed up in subbed form -- except at maybe a festival or two).

I've only managed to see 9 of his films (and most of what I've seen has been unsubbed). Of these, my favorites have been Tokyo Siblings, Osaka Story, Tokyo Marigold and How I Became Myself. But, really, most of the others are almost as wonderful.

[Perkins Cobb]

Well, maybe now we'll get a US retrospective. The only silver lining to dying young (viz Edward Yang).

[Steven H]

Terrible news. The world will never see another Tony Takitani or Tokyo Siblings. Beautiful films.

[Steven H]

Paul Newman.

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

Unbelievably sad news. A world treasure has been lost. I'm popping in "The Hustler" right now... and maybe top it off with "Hombre."

We've lost one of cinema's true stars.

[swo17]

Truly one of the greats. I'm going to watch Cool Hand Luke and, um, The Hudsucker Proxy in tribute.

[sir karl]

Damn.

[Cinephrenic]

Another legend from his generation lost. Truly sad indeed.

[MichaelB]

Newman wasn't just a great actor, but also a truly admirable human being - apparently he gave away a greater proportion of his fortune to good causes than any other single individual, and I can well believe it.

[HerrSchreck]

When I was younger I used to study at The Actors Studio on 44th St, and used to see Paul & JoAnne every week (he was the pres).. she'd sit there with her knitting during sessions, occasionally glancing up over her work to smile at a scene, etc.

Newman was the nicest fucking guy, and the most genuine dude out of the whole bunch, which included Kazan, Keitel, Pacino etc. (He was also practically up to my chin-- he was much shorter than he looked) He lived a great, long, wonderful fucking life, but the dude is still irreplaceable.

Here's to you Paul. One of a kind.