Passages

[MichaelB]

Alexei German.

[Suspect]

Sad news about German. For a man whose career has been plagued with production and release issues I hope that the film he was working on at the time of his death will get the release it deserves. It is currently listed as being in post-production according to imdb, whatever that's worth, but I seem to remember it being at the same stage earlier last year too, although I could easily be mistaken. His adaptation of the Strugatsky brothers was something I was looking forward to (eventually!) seeing. Hopefully some news will follow about the state of this most recent production, as well as some fitting tributes and retrospectives.

Edit: A quick search seems to indicate that filming was completed in 2006 (according to Wikipedia), and there seems to be some rough footage on YouTube uploaded in 2011!

[maxcherry]

His son Aleksei German-jr wrote in his weblog that work on “Trudno byt bogom” is basically finished, some questions about re-recording of sound remains to be resolved, and premiere is going to happen in “foreseeable future”.

[Roger Ryan]

...Hopefully some news will follow about the state of this most recent production...

From the Bloomberg obituary linked to on the previous page by "maxcherry"...

His final movie, based on a science-fiction novel by the Strugatsky brothers, “Hard to Be a God,” will be finished after audio post-production is completed, German’s son said.

[Yakushima]

What a terribly sad day!
Just recently I read that German promised to show the completed film to his friends and readers of Novaya Gazeta - online Russian newspaper, with which he had close relations for many years and which published many of his sharply critical interviews - on April 1. It seems that the film was nearing completion, with only a few sound mixing sessions to go.
It is a a huge missed opportunity for Criterion or any other label outside of Russia to work with this great director on a best possible presentation of his life-worth of work to the world.
One of the greatest filmmakers of all time is gone. A truly tragic loss.

[Matt]

Are there any Aleksei German DVDs available in any region with English subs?

[zedz]

Just trying to find out for you, I came across this hilarious miscataloguing for German, Jr.s masterpiece Paper Soldier (which is a black-and-white Tarkovskyan period drama about the Soviet space programme, and does not star Jay-Z): Paper Soldiers

[Drucker]

W. Watts Biggers, creator of Underdog.

[MichaelB]

Bob Godfrey.

[Antares]

This happened back in January, but seems to have been missed, Jimmy O'Neill, host of ABC's Shindig! in the sixties.

[dadaistnun]

Cleotha Staples of the Staples Singers

[Gregory]

It would be great to see Shindig! on DVD. I don't know what rights obstacles there may be but it seems like something Shout Factory might eventually do. The old Rhino tapes were a shelf-wasting 30 minutes each but still great to watch. The Jerry Lee Lewis one is amazing. He was really out of his element by the mid-1960s and at a drastic low point in his career (amazingly, an Amazon reviewer calls this tape "Jerry Lee in his prime"!) but he was still incredible entertainer and was clearly able to drive the audiences wild. Shindig was a really good show, and the list of musical guests suggests staggering possibilities for new releases of these, hopefully with the ads intact: check out the commercial for milk in the first minute of this one.

[colinr0380]

Bob Godfrey.

It has certainly been a bad week for fans of Roobarb.

[GaryC]

BBC designer Raymond P. Cusick, who worked on ten Doctor Who serials (1963-1966) and was best known for designing the Daleks.

[bamwc2]

CC. Everett Koop-Co-star of Exorcist III and former US Surgeon General under Reagan.

[bamwc2]

Adam Strange

[Antares]

It would be great to see Shindig! on DVD. I don't know what rights obstacles there may be but it seems like something Shout Factory might eventually do. The old Rhino tapes were a shelf-wasting 30 minutes each but still great to watch. The Jerry Lee Lewis one is amazing. He was really out of his element by the mid-1960s and at a drastic low point in his career (amazingly, an Amazon reviewer calls this tape "Jerry Lee in his prime"!) but he was still incredible entertainer and was clearly able to drive the audiences wild. Shindig was a really good show, and the list of musical guests suggests staggering possibilities for new releases of these, hopefully with the ads intact: check out the commercial for milk in the first minute of this one.

I was 5 years old when the program aired and it was one of my uncle's favorite shows. I used to sit and watch it with him and this is what got me into R&R. I've been hoping and waiting for years for this to be released on DVD. But with royalty and rights issues, it will probably never see the light of day in my lifetime.

[Antares]

Van Cliburn

[dadaistnun]

Listened to his Brahms Concerto No. 1 just the other day. RIP.

[Antares]

Dale Robertson

[Perkins Cobb]

Del Tenney.

[bamwc2]

Bonnie Franklin

[maxcherry]

Herz Frank

MUBI page

[Drucker]

Bobby Rogers, founding member of the Miracles

[JPJ]

Armando Trovajoli

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