Passages

[James]

RIP to the french Jesus Franco, Jean Rollin

A very inappropriate thing to say in its inaccuracy. But yes, RIP to the director of one of the greatest, most under-appreciated "horror" films of always, Fascination.

[Duncan Hopper]

I don't know how I missed this, but John Leslie also died this week. Jean Rollin, Captain Beefheart and John Leslie all in one week. Not many mavericks left.

[colinr0380]

I agree that Rollin shouldn't really be bracketed in with the more (endearingly) mercenary Jess "We've got four actors, three sets and a free weekend. Let's film segments of four different films!" Franco (though Zombie Lake can be see as an example of that 'for hire' kind of work), but stands more on his own with a certain, for lack of a better term, refinement towards his relatively more narrow range of material. While Fascination is a great introduction to his work, specific films are difficult to recommend as they are most of interest when seen cumulatively for the way the individual films all resonate with each other. Just watching one or two, even of his best works, doesn't really get to the heart of what makes him such a fascinating filmmaker.

He's also a great example of an auterist director (and I don't often use that term, because I think the advocates of auterism too often try and universally apply it to all filmmakers), because of the way that the tone and recurring elements of his films are always instantly recognisable even when the genres may vary.

And for anyone interested in Rollin's work, as well as checking out the avmaniac.com forum threads, Jeremy Richey's dedicated site is also worth a visit.

[Cinephrenic]

I agree with you on Jean Rollin vs. Jesus Franco. Although, I wasn't comparing their artistic craft, just their contribution to horror cult cinema. Jean Rollin was more of an auteur and stylistically quite different.

[tavernier]

Steve Landesberg

[fiddlesticks]

Bud Greenspan

[mfunk9786]

An important figure in the fiduciary history of the United States. Not sure if I agreed with all of his policies and beliefs, but he'll certainly be missed.

Oh, wait

[Dr Amicus]

Elisabeth Beresford

... the Wombles of Wimbledon Common are we.

[tavernier]

Teena Marie

[antnield]

Billy Taylor (arguably best known to UK readers of this forum as the composer of 'I Wish I Knew How to Be Free', aka the theme music to the BBC's Film programme over the years).

[colinr0380]

Here's the tune, from the tribute that the BBC's Film programme made to mark the departure of Barry Norman on his last show in 1998 (Of course the tune itself, unlike Norman, has continued through the Jonathan Ross tenure and now into the era of Winkleman)

[antnield]

Oscar-winning visual effects artist Grant McCune.

[antnield]

Hideko Takamine

[Lemmy Caution]

Billy Taylor (arguably best known to UK readers of this forum as the composer of 'I Wish I Knew How to Be Free', aka the theme music to the BBC's Film programme over the years).

I primarily know Sol Burke's rendition of that tune. And of course he just passed as well.
Didn't hear about Billy Taylor.
Glad he had a good long life and did as much as he could to promote jazz.
He was sort of a national treasure.

[Michael Kerpan]

Hideko TAKAMINE (follow up to antnield)

Japan's greatest child star of the 1930s became one of the reigning divas of Japanese cinema in the 1950s and early 1960s. She died on December 29 (according to NHK) due to lung cancer.

Her greatest child performance was in Seven Seas (1931-1932). Her first non-child role was in Naruse's 1941 Hideko the Bus Conductor. Many (most) of her greatest roles were in films by Naruse (e.g., Lightning, Floating Clouds, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Wanderer's Notebook, Yearning). She also appeared regularly in the films of Keisuke Kinoshita (e.g. 24 Eyes) and her husband Zensu Matsuyama -- and occasionally in the films of Yasujiro Ozu (as a child in Tokyo chorus, as an an adult in Munekata Sisters) and Masaki Kobayashi .

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Hideko Takamine

Ouch. I loved her acting in When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.

[Steven H]

Sad news. Here's a dance scene from Carmen Comes Home (1951), directed by Kinoshita, that shows a side of Takamine many might not be familiar with.

[ambrose]

Hideko Takamine

The first images that formed in my mind after reading this news were of those moments within a Naruse film when Miss.Takamine happens to be eating,the carefully contrived proletarian gracelessness with which she slurps down a bowl of noodles or disposes of seeds over her shoulder had a curious charm and an almost ideological intent. In fact the lower-middle class/working-class characters played by Miss.Takamine throughout her career always possessed a defiantly pragmatic sense of their place in the lower strata's of society, she was an important counterbalance to the usual bunch of over refined actresses of Japanese film with the exception of Sugimura Haruko the acting heroine of Miss.Takamine. In most discussions of Japanese film in this forum despite the insight and erudition of a few specialists too little is made of class within Japanese film and society despite the hierarchical nature of that society,in many ways similar to my own!

As a follow up to the above passage I wonder whether the atypically refined character that Miss.Takamine portrayed in "When a woman Ascends the stairs" was a conscious departure from the archetype I described in my previous post? (even so she is always in danger of declining in status, on the verge of perpetual bankruptcy, with an overweening conventionally working-class Naruse family to support so perhaps as a whole it might only be a slight departure.)The Self styled siren provides the first truly personal commemorative blog entry on Miss Takamine.

This appears to be a newly updated or created Japanese language Takamine Hideko web site, I tried using google translate with obviously comical results so I hope there is someone on this forum with a better grasp of the contents?

1970s advert featuring Miss.Takamine. This might be neither here nor there but over the past two days I have become increasingly disgruntled and possibly unhinged by the absence of any coverage of Takamine Hideko's recent death in the quality papers , I am absolutely positive that if a certain other actress had died this would not be the case. One reason perhaps the only reason for this absence might be that her notable roles were nearly always for Naruse Mikio still an obscure figure for the mainstream-press.

[Perkins Cobb]

Bill Erwin, a ubiquitous character actor who I did, in fact, run into in a parking lot once.

[Perkins Cobb]

Per Oscarsson, apparently.

[AisleSeat]

Hideko Takamine

Just learned of the death of Hideko Takamine and am deeply saddened. The small obit I came across from Kyodo News had a wonderful picture of her, taken, it seems, not so long ago. Such a classy, lovely, sincere women, as well as a consummate actress who touched millions of people in Japan and around the globe with her portrayals of struggling, earnest women, often from the working class, who were usually striving to improve their lot often against daunting odds. She will be missed.

As far as I know, there is only one in-depth profile of Takamine that has appeared in English. Penned by Phyllis Birnbaum and titled "The Odor of Pickled Radishes," the lengthy portrait can be found in Modern Girls, Shining Stars, The Skies of Tokyo: 5 Japanese Women, published by Columbia University Press, with includes, as well, four other pieces by Birnbaum, including one on the famous Japanese actress Sumako Matsui. If anyone is interested in digging deeper into Takemine's life and finding out what made her tick, this profile is a good starting point.

[Perkins Cobb]

Anne Francis.

[ambrose]

Hideko Takamine

The Self-Styled Siren provides the first truly personal commemorative blog entry on Miss Takamine.

The Self-Styled Siren in the comments section below her blog entry has suggested that one possible reason for the absence of mainstream press coverage might be the lack of independent confirmation as regards the death-notice, would anyone here consider that a possibility?

The New York Times provides the first belated western appreciation of Takamine Hideko's life and career!. The LA Times obituary.

Anne Francis.

LA Times Obituary

[Oedipax]

Pete Postlethwaite

Really sad. I'll never forget his performance in Distant Voices, Still Lives.

[knives]

I guess I should put those plans to sleep tonight away. Just reading that name here has sent me through a number of emotions. He just had one of those great distinctive faces. Seeing him in a movie was knowing that things were going to be at least entertaining. A true comfort.