Passages

[Caligula]

Claudio Abbado.

Obviously, he made an infinitely greater contribution to music than to cinema, but plenty of films benefited from his indirect input.

Probably not too surprising, in view of his health issues over the past years, but still a painful loss. His recordings on BD with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra of Mahler's Symphonies (in particular no's 2 & 3 and 9) have a special place in my household. The BD box set with symphonies 1-7 remedy some issues with the individual releases, in particular symphony 2.

The CD box set recently issued on occasion of his 80th birthday by DG (recordings picked by the maestro himself for this release) provides an inexpensive way to aquire many of his splendid recordings. On checking the price I see that it now retails for double what I paid when I purchased it at time of release, but still excellent value IMHO.

[antnield]

Riz Ortolani.

[colinr0380]

Kind of amazing that his instrumental score turned Oscar nominated song More for shock-doc Mondo Cane became a much covered standard!

We'll be getting an Ortolani score on Criterion soon with their release of Il Sorpasso. In the meantime I'll content myself with the incongruously beautiful soundtracks to some of the craziest and disturbing films ever made, Cannibal Holocaust, Africa Addio and Goodbye Uncle Tom! (NSFW on the Uncle Tom video)

[GaryC]

One we missed: German-Australian actress and theatre/opera director Elke Neidhardt, on 25 November 2013 at age 72.

[L.A.]

Gordon Hessler

[antnield]

Pete Seeger.

[bamwc2]

Pete Seeger.

It obviously was going to happen sooner rather than later, but even at at 94 this still hurts.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Tom Sherak

[Gaddis]

Don't know if this was missed or not but Alan Bridges

[antnield]

Miklós Jancsó.

[Cold Bishop]

I never realized he was that old. A true master and, even rarer, a true original in his conception of cinema.

[bamwc2]

Miklós Jancsó.

Terrible news. I've only seen a handful of films by him, but each one was a masterpiece.

[Bikey]

So sad to hear today of the passing of the great Hungarian filmmaker Miklós Jancsó.

Hungarian cinema's most renowned filmmaker and a profound influence on filmmakers from Sergio Leone to Béla Tarr, Jancsó was one of cinema's greatest visionaries, a giant of world cinema. The films made by Miklós Jancsó such as My Way Home (Így jöttem, 1964), The Round-Up (Szegénylegények, 1965), The Red and the White (Csillagosok, katonák, 1967), Silence and Cry (Csend és kiáltás, 1968) The Confrontation (Fényes szelek, 1968) and Red Psalm (Még kér a nép, 1971) - for which was awarded the Best Director prize in Cannes 1972 - were at the forefront of the revival of Hungarian cinema, while the starkness of his themes and a distinctive visual style made Jancsó himself one of the most controversial and widely discussed of contemporary directors.

Our press release is here

[MichaelB]

Maximilian Schell.

[Perkins Cobb]

Christopher Jones.

[domino harvey]

Discussion of the death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman moved here

[Perkins Cobb]

And now Eduardo Coutinho ... murdered by his son?! I quit.

[perkizitore]

Jesus H Christ, who's next, Matthew Mcconaughey?

[j99]

Miklós Jancsó.

I didn't realise he had died. The Round Up and The Red And The White are two of my favourite films. Sad he's gone.

[Cold Bishop]

Character actor, director, man with the buddha smile, ubiquitous piece of the HK movie-landscape - Wu Ma passes away at 71.

[Feego]

Arthur Rankin Jr. of Rankin/Bass

[Perkins Cobb]

Australian director Craig Lahiff.

[dadaistnun]

Ann Carter of Curse of the Cat People and I Married a Witch.

[Feego]

How sad. She was fantastic in The Curse of the Cat People, one of the all-time great child performances.

[anton]

Gabriel Axel, at the age of 95. (danish)