Passages

[Feego]

Compared to the stories you hear about Raquel Welch being incredibly dismissive about her Hammer films (although admittedly she was in the sillier ones, with little to do except look gorgeous in a fur bikini and fight off magnified lizards), it seemed that Ingrid Pitt really enjoyed being associated with those films she appeared in.

This is off topic, but I always liked Welch's remark when she won the Best Actress Golden Globe for The Three Musketeers: "I've been waiting for this since One Million Years B.C.!"

[antnield]

Peter Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and Coil. He was also a prolific director of music videos (from Erasure to Sepultura) and had recently made the new Ostia: The Death of Pier Paolo Pasolini piece for the BFI's Salò DVD/Blu.

[flyonthewall2983]

His work as a graphic designer for Storm Thorgerson's Hipgnosis was also utilized in album covers by Pink Floyd, and some of Peter Gabriel's early solo records to name a few.

[j99]

Peter Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV and Coil. He was also a prolific director of music videos (from Erasure to Sepultura) and had recently made the new Ostia: The Death of Pier Paolo Pasolini piece for the BFI's Salò DVD/Blu.

Shocked by the news. Liked a lot of the stuff he did with TG and PTV, and saw the latter's first gig as part of the Final Academy back in the early 80s at the Ritzy in Brixton which remains a highlight. RIP.

[TechNoir]

This is terrible news. I have been a huge fan for many years of all his musical projects, and his work in music video. I think that his remix of Nine Inch Nails Closer as heard in Seven, and Coil's haunting cover of Tainted Love are two of the darkest tracks ever. He was such a master of electronic sound manipulation.When John Balance of Coil died I was afraid that Sleazy would leave music behind. Then TG reformed and all was good until Genesis P-Orridge suddenly left the band about a month ago shocking the other band members. One of the greatest. R.I.P.

[Tom Hagen]

Feeling especially fortunate now that I was able to see Throbbing Gristle at Coachella in 2009.

[zeroism]

A great loss for the world of music, and the world of creative expression as a whole...

If anyone hasn't seen the video he directed for Coil's cover of Tainted Love, I would highly recommend it. A profoundly touching piece done as a companion to the single, which was released to benefit AIDS charity/ies.

[MichaelB]

The timing is particularly sad because the BFI is gearing up to release Duffer, one of his favourite films - and it was entirely because of his advocacy that this release is happening at all.

[fiddlesticks]

Leslie Nielsen. Tonight's double feature: Forbidden Planet and Airplane!

[mfunk9786]

This can't be happening.

[Murdoch]

And here I thought he'd live forever.

[knives]

What.


Let's hope this is a Vigoda. He is such a strange presence.

[jbeall]

Leslie Nielsen. Tonight's double feature: Forbidden Planet and Airplane!

<sigh>

Roger. Roger. Over. Over.

[LQ]

So, so sad. Growing up, the Naked Gun movies so saturated our family life that they became inculcated into our day-to-day communication: my dad's longtime superior who bore a surname that easily contorted into "Papshmir" was referred to as such for the duration of his employ...my brother and I learned the valuable lesson of "private" versus "public" information with that one... jokes about finding rings and and other non edibles abounded whenever we had hot dogs, etc etc. One of the grand total of three trips ever made to the movie theater as a family was even driven by Leslie Nielsen- we oddly decided to take in a show of Dracula: Dead and Loving it one afternoon and laughed so hard that the other two people in the audience shushed us.
RIP, Lt. Frank Drebin.

[Sloper]

'Might end up dead' was his middle name, but like others I expected him to live forever. Very sad news.

[CSM126]

The Naked Gun is the only movie that has ever made me laugh so hard for so long that it actually hurt. And it still does every time I watch it. That alone is enough to make Leslie Nielsen special to me, but toss in Airplane! and, hell, even Naked Gun 2 1/2 and 33 1/3...and I'm just ever so sad to see him go. Few things make me like someone more than the ability to make me laugh.

[j99]

If anyone hasn't seen the video he directed for Coil's cover of Tainted Love, I would highly recommend it. A profoundly touching piece done as a companion to the single, which was released to benefit AIDS charity/ies.

Great version too. It's on you tube.

There were also those amazing longform Throbbing Gristle videos from the late 70s, Heathen Earth and Live At Oundle Public School; the former was the first ever commercially available home music video. However my favourite Peter Christopherson directed music video remains his band Psychic TV's Terminus.

[HypnoHelioStaticStasis]

Some more sad, sad news.

Irvin Kershner

[colinr0380]

Irvin Kershner

RIP to the director of the one decent Star Wars film and the great Eyes of Laura Mars (and the flawed, but interestingly so, Robocop 2).

And what can you say about Leslie Nielsen? (Except perhaps that everywhere I've gone today I keep seeing things that remind me of him!) Since many of his very best films have been acknowledged already, I'll mention some of his other roles I particularly liked: those episodes of Due South in which he appeared; the Exorcist spoof Repossessed, which is nowhere near as sharp overall as Airplane! or The Naked Gun films but still a nice role; and especially that episode of Creepshow in which he plays the archetypal evil villain getting a gruesome ironic comeuppance!

Plus I have a soft spot for Nielsen, in another bad guy role, wrestling a bear in Day of the Animals!

[knives]

especially that episode of Creepshow in which he plays the archetypal evil villain getting a gruesome ironic comeuppance!

I was going to mention that but wasn't sure if that was really him or Steve Martin (weird confusion, I know).
As for Kershner, that's a tough one. Guess it's going to be a tough week for people who have given great memories more so than traditional great work. Really though isn't that former better than the later though as far as remembrance goes?

[Duncan Hopper]

Another Star Wars related death.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Mario Monicelli kills himself.

[Props55]

Kershner certainly had a strange career, full of ups, downs and many sidelong digressions. Never saw THE LUCK OF GINGER COFFEY so for me the one to beat was LOVING. Simply fantastic cast (George Segal at the height of his late 60s/early 70s supernova, Eva Marie Saint, Keenan Wynn, Sterling Hayden) giving marvelously detailed performances in this tale of a marriage (and career) teetering over the edge. And that last furtive sex scene! I'll say no more!

[Knappen]

Mario Monicelli kills himself.

The fact that this doesn't cause a single comment says a whole lot about the reception of Italian comedy in the English speaking world.

RIP.

[ellipsis7]

Well the BBC gives him some due!...