Passages

[fiddlesticks]

First Nick Adenhart, then Harry Kalas, and now Mark "the Bird" Fidrych...the baseball season is off to a mournful start this year.

[colinr0380]

The BBC is reporting that Mike Leigh's long standing producer Simon Channing Williams has died. No fuller report as yet.

[ellipsis7]

Decent guy... Met him once... Telegraph.co.uk

A Good Man in Africa

Posted By: David Gritten

The British film producer Simon Channing Williams, who died over the weekend after a lengthy illness, is well-known in industry circles as the producing partner of Mike Leigh, with whom he made eight movies -- including Secrets and Lies, Naked, Topsy Turvy and Vera Drake -- in 20 years.

In this capacity, he helped raise finance for Leigh's films -- not always an easy task when the works concerned arose from long periods of research by the actors who play Leigh's characters, and by the improvisational approach towards their stories.

But to those who spent even a short time with him, he was something more -- a man of great scruples, principle and striking kindness. To the British film industry the sense of loss accompanying his death compares with that of another inspirational figure, Anthony Minghella, who died just over a year ago.

Five years ago, I spent a week with Simon on the set of one of his non-Leigh films, The Constant Gardener, an adaptation of John le Carre's novel, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. It was shot on location in Kenya, where the story was set.

He was a huge le Carre fan, and had read all his books. He was so determined to make a film of The Constant Gardener that he wrote an impassioned letter to the author's lawyer in New York, urging him not to sell the film rights to an American studio.

"I do feel very strongly that this film should not be of Hollywood, but must retain its intrinsic English feel," he wrote. "We must not pander to requirements that a major US partner would require."

He won the day, but more battles lay ahead. Simon felt that because the book's sense of place was so strong, the film had to be shot in Kenya. Although its main financier Focus wanted it shot in South Africa, a country with a larger, more established film industry, Simon stood his ground and insisted on Kenya. Thus began a strange love affair between this cheerful, portly, courteous 60 year old Englishman and one African nation.

I've been on the sets of several American or British films shot in the Third World. Typically, their casts and crews tend not to fraternise with the community, grumble about their accommodation, berate the film-making skills of the local crews and beat a hasty retreat back to the joys of air conditioning and indoor plumbing at home.

Simon's approach was very different. He employed 70 key Kenyan crew members, spread across various departments (lighting, sound, costume) of the production. The Constant Gardener boasts 54 speaking parts; 38 of them went to Kenyan actors, a fact that made him immensely proud.

But he also left a legacy in Kenya that has lived on after the production had wrapped. He also set up a charity, the Constant Gardener Trust, which supports those communities the production team encountered in the course of shooting.

To give me a glimpse of what he was trying to achieve, he urged me to take a guided tour around Kibera, a district of Nairobi that is Africa's largest slum.

It is a sobering place -- a city within a city, where some 800,000 people live, mst of them below the poverty line. Disease is rampant. Aids has made orphans of thousands of its children. Piles of garbage are heaped high; tumbledown shacks with corrugated iron roofs line the 'roads,' which are essentially thoroughfares of dried, litter-strewn mud.

Yet in the midst of this wasteland was a small primary school, where astonishingly cheerful children -- almost all Aids orphans -- smiled at visitors and shouted greetings. Simon ordered the construction of an extra classroom.

He also supervised the provision of three 10,000 litre water tanks, so Kibera residents could have access to free clean water, had a bridge built across a wide sewer so that emergency vehicles could reach the old and infirm, and created a safe play area at a neaby secondary school.

In Kenya's remote northern region, the production shot scenes at a village called Loiyangalani, where Simon negotiated with tribal chiefs to help build a secondary school. It didn't stop there: from Nairobi, The Constant Gardener's production team arranged shipments of maize, flour, salt, pulses and sugar -- and urgently needed fresh water for a place where rickets among children is commonplace.

His work in Loiyangalani made Simon a folk hero. After we had both returned to London, he sheepishly showed me a photo of himself in a head-dress, swathed in a blanket and brandishing a spear. On the last night of shooting , the locals had invested him as a tribal elder.

The popular image of a film producer is that of a tough-talking man, chomping on a cigar and barking out orders to underlings who cower before him. Simon Channing Williams utterly belied that image. I came away from Kenya thinking that here was a good man in Africa. But in truth, he was a good man wherever he went.

[MichaelB]

No great surprise, sadly - he was clearly very ill already when I met him a couple of years ago.

I absolutely endorse everything in that article: British producers don't get a very good press on the whole, and often for perfectly good reasons, but major exceptions like Simon Channing-Williams should have their achievements trumpeted from the rafters.

Quite apart from anything else, it's hard to think of a much tougher producing job than working for Mike Leigh - not because Leigh is necessarily especially difficult (though I bet he is), but because financiers tend to want scripts upfront, and he and Leigh never had the kind of ongoing relationship with a single production company that, say, Kubrick and Clint Eastwood had with Warner Bros or Woody Allen had with United Artists/Orion (largely the same people).

[ellipsis7]

Quite apart from anything else, it's hard to think of a much tougher producing job than working for Mike Leigh - not because Leigh is necessarily especially difficult (though I bet he is), but because financiers tend to want scripts upfront, and he and Leigh never had the kind of ongoing relationship with a single production company that, say, Kubrick and Clint Eastwood had with Warner Bros or Woody Allen had with United Artists/Orion (largely the same people).

It's interesting what you say about Eastwood and Warner, who apparently shoots scripts word for word... Paul Schrader, when he was in Ireland a couple of years ago, remarked to me that in MILLION DOLLAR BABY the way Eastwood had his own character, and indeed the drama as a whole, never clarify why and how there had been a schism with the daughter, who indeed is never seen, was something only Eastwood could get away with leaving open and as a loose end...Similarly he delibarately leaves a lot hanging in THE CHANGELING, not following the various story strands through to resolution, rather focussing on single isolated 'good actions' that lend a form of redemption to just some of the characters, while others are denied it because they refuse the choice or opportunity to take such an action... A filmmaker has to have a strong relationship with a studio to get away with this...

[MichaelB]

A filmmaker has to have a strong relationship with a studio to get away with this...

At the risk of drifting off-topic, this is absolutely right, though it helps that all three filmmakers I mentioned had a reliable commercial track record - rarely spectacular, but they usually turned a healthy profit once the books were totted up over a period of several years.

In fact, I think Eastwood's relationship with Warner Bros in the 1980s and 1990s saw him alternating stuff for them (Dirty Harry V, Pink Cadillac, The Rookie) and stuff for himself (Bird, White Hunter Black Heart, Unforgiven), which seems a very pragmatic and sensible way of going about things. It also helped that he had a solid reputation for bringing films in ahead of schedule and under budget, thus making him an even safer bet - I don't imagine Warner Bros regrets that relationship for a second!

But I can't see someone as uncompromising as Leigh agreeing to something like that, which is presumably why he hasn't managed to build the same ongoing relationship with a regular backer. I just hope that Simon Channing-Williams' death won't cause him any future difficulties, because I get the impression that it was one of the more important director-producer partnerships in recent British cinema.

To put this in perspective, Channing-Williams produced all but one of Leigh's cinema films, the one exception being his debut Bleak Moments almost two decades before he started making big-screen films regularly, and it was partly because of Leigh's uncompromising methods that he spent the intervening years making low-budget films for television: he was seen as too big a risk. Then again, his reputation has changed beyond recognition since the 1980s, so it won't be a case of going back to square one.

[ellipsis7]

Mike Leigh's own tribute

Mike Leigh writes: Simon's heart was as massive as his famous physical bulk. So was his charming, jovial, genial, impish sense of humour. He was a natural-born producer – a great leader, always an enabler, a protector; never a dictator or an interferer. Infinitely generous, his life was all about doing things for people, and bringing out the best in everybody. He was the ultimate fixer, and a phenomenal organiser. He relished the impossible challenge, and loved the cut-and-thrust of negotiations, at which he was a genius. He had no pretensions to be a story-teller, always understanding the symbiotic relationship between the producer and the creative team. But he thoroughly understood film, technically and artistically, and his taste and insight were always impeccable, incisive and constructive.

He would hate all this praise. He always talked about "just getting on with it", which is how he dealt with his spreading multiple cancer over nearly five years – quietly and with no fuss. Bravely, he insisted on working almost until the end. Finally forced to give in, he faced death openly and with characteristic good humour. I saw him at home in Penzance a fortnight ago. As we parted company for the last time, we shared our favourite running gag. We always disagreed as to which of us was the organ-grinder, and which the monkey. We each claimed to be the monkey, but I can now state beyond all doubt that Simon was the consummate organ-grinder.

He died peacefully on Easter Saturday, surrounded by the wonderful Annie and his loving family. He leaves an epic gap in so many of our lives.

[Ovader]

Late news but I have just read this from Senses of Cinema about the death this past December of cinematographer Michel Fournier most known for photographing Philippe Garrel's early films.

[Via_Chicago]

Marilyn Chambers, star of the great Behind the Green Door and Cronenberg's Rabid, dead at 56.

[tavernier]

Barmy beat you to it yesterday:

Marilyn Chambers RIP :^o

[colinr0380]

Producer of the Carry On films Peter Rogers

[Cold Bishop]

Velda

[HerrSchreck]

Barmy beat you to it yesterday:

Marilyn Chambers RIP :^o

I'm wondering what the hell she died of. She was so young. They say the autopsy could not determine the cause.

I dug Marilyn. She was a bit spaced out with her strangely put-upon/shy vibe while describing the mechanics of deepthroating in Inside Deep Throat (a pretty good doc, btw), one of her last big time appearances, I'd surmise.

Nothing-- I say NOTHING-- is better than Johnny Keyes (The Bone Necklace King of Swedish Erotica) dancing with her in Behind The Green Door (a bit of the Great Scene appears at the end of the clip). His burgundy suit, his high heel shoes, their clapping spins, how far she sticks her ass out, the way they fuck the air while wagging their heads all the way to the side and down, the choochoo-train jogging motions they make with their arms & fists... it's nirvana.

And what is better than heaven in washed out early-70's color?

[GaryC]

J.G. Ballard

[HerrSchreck]

Ouch.

[colinr0380]

Awful news and a great loss. I've recently finished the collections of his short stories and have to say that I was completely enamoured of his writing style and view of the world. You don't often find someone who seems to have a grasp of the psychology of the modern world, much less able to communicate it as coherently, as movingly and sometimes as funnily! (I particularly liked Passport To Eternity in which a couple trying to decide which intergalactic cruise to go on find themselves beseiged by competing factions of militant travel agencies before forcefully being taken on a cruise that will last for, you guessed it, eternity!) By which I mean fictional and fantastical works which affect the way the reader sees difficult issues of the world outside, rather than using fiction purely as an escape from thinking about it. (A good example of this is War Fever in which a young orphan in a war torn Middle Eastern-style conflict where allegiances shift like the sand decides on seeing UN 'peacekeepers' dispassionately monitoring the violence to turn everyone into a peacekeeper maintaining the peace rather than a soldier! Of course then it is revealed that the rest of the world has been at peace for hundreds of years with various hatreds distilled into this one war zone populated by orphaned children. They're brought from around the world to be used in an experiment to keep the presence of war going much as samples of other deadly and almost eradicated diseases are kept for future reference in laboratories for study. Naturally it is also a giant reality TV show that mediates the blood lust of the rest of the world into a safe form.)

There are also the images of technological dislocation such as characters setting up a "24 hour zoom" from an extreme long shot of a block of flats that ends with a close up of a drop of blood on the tiles of a bathroom wall after a murder story has been enacted for the steadily approaching camera; spacemen exploring and getting lost inside a derelict spaceship with unimaginable dimensions, or a young man setting out to explore the limits of his world on a train and similarly finding out the unpalatable truth of his situation; and characters enclosed in their homes examining the shower scene from Psycho in minute detail long before DVD allowed anyone to! There are themes of obsession with time repeating or going backwards (in stories that prefigure Benajmin Button and Groundhog Day long before those films came along), slowing to a stop and simply as a concept to order lives.

He was writing material in the 50s and 60s that remains eerily applicable to the world today. Ironically only the fascination with the space race seems dated now - I don't know if that should be seen as a tribute to Ballard's abilities or an indictment of the failure to tackle the problems, manipulations and hypocrisies raised by life in modern society in any effective and sensitive manner over the decades.

I would recommend again that anyone remotely interested in his work try to find a copy of the film of The Atrocity Exhibition, not just for the magnificent film itself but also to listen to the commentary between the director and Ballard. A valuable chance to hear Ballard speak at length about his work.

[MichaelB]

Is it too much to hope that tomorrow's Daily Mail will run the headline CAR CRASH SEX FILM WRITER DIES, with a reminder that a publisher's reader once said he was "beyond psychiatric help"?

I'm sure it's what Ballard would have wanted.

[colinr0380]

I'll let you know when I see the paper tomorrow. Anything less than a front page apology letter from Christopher Tookey coupled with an announcement that due to their disgraceful behaviour the Daily Mail is ceasing publication indefinitely will not be acceptable!

More likely though the paper after a brief mention of his passing will be full of immigrant scare stories, disgust at youth violence and anarchist protestors and general despairing at the collapse of morality, while encouraging readers to enter a competition to win their own mortgage free country cottage far away from the horrible outside world.

On second thoughts I agree Michael. Ballard would have approved!

[colinr0380]

Is it too much to hope that tomorrow's Daily Mail will run the headline CAR CRASH SEX FILM WRITER DIES, with a reminder that a publisher's reader once said he was "beyond psychiatric help"?

Just checked the paper. They went with a bland headline for their half page article (on page 20 or so) but after six paragraphs on Empire of the Sun (the acceptable face of Ballard for the media, it seems) did manage to repeat the "beyond psychiatric help" comment.

There was also an interesting error when they say that Crash was "made into a film starring Jeremy Irons in 1996". I'm unsure whether they got this mixed up with Dead Ringers or whether more likely the writer of the article was flashing back in confusion to the way that a couple of years later they had tried to parlay the moral indigation over Crash into another 'ban this sick film' campaign against Adrian Lyne's Lolita remake starring Irons. (I seem to remember a lot of despairing articles in 1998 reminding readers of the campaign about the Cronenberg film and making comments along the line of: "first Crash, then this. Is there nothing the BBFC won't pass?")

[tojoed]

Thanks Colin. That was a noble gesture, above and beyond the call of duty. I think it's Lord Rothermere who's beyond psychiatric help.

By the way, you're not changing your name to "pollock", are you?

[MichaelB]

Vastly superior coverage in today's Guardian, with a full page piece on page three of the main section.

I suspect the news came too late to change the obituary pages, so there'll probably be another full-pager tomorrow - though their Ballard obit is already online.

[GaryC]

I read The Drowned World and The Crystal World over twenty-five years ago and remember sections of them so vividly it could have been last month. I could name about half a dozen writers I know personally who would claim him as a huge influence.

He wrote many novels, but I'm glad there's some recognition here for his short fiction. He said that some of his shorter novels would have been novellas if there had been a ready market for them.

His autobiography, Miracles of Life, is well worth reading. It's less an autobiography than a variation on themes and material also used in Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women (I preferred the latter novel to the former, by the way), but essential reading for any Ballard fan.

ETA: Good choice to write the Guardian's obit - David Pringle (former editor of Interzone magazine) was an known authority on him, as well as a friend.

[razumovsky]

Touching tribute to J.G. Ballard by his doctor in today's Times

[MichaelB]

ETA: Good choice to write the Guardian's obit - David Pringle (former editor of Interzone magazine) was an known authority on him, as well as a friend.

It sounds morbid, but I suppose one advantage of several months' advance notice of terminal illness is that it gives sympathetic newspapers plenty of time to commission the right writer and do a really good job on the obit - and Pringle's one was clearly written by someone who knew both man and work inside out.

[MichaelB]

Jack Cardiff.

For once, the phrase "the end of an era" isn't a tiresome cliché.