Passages

[colinr0380]

Obviously vastly more important as one of Jamaica's key musical figures, but starring in The Harder They Come didn't exactly do his career any harm. And it's still arguably the greatest Jamaican film ever made.

Here's Alex Cox's introduction to The Harder They Come on its Moviedrome screening in 1994. That's a really great film and one of the best singer-in-a-lead-role performances as well. It helps that it has autobiographical aspects interwoven into its fall and rise before fall again story, and uses Many Rivers To Cross and You Can Get It If You Really Want in addition to The Harder They Come on its soundtrack.

[colinr0380]

Udo Kier

He seemed immortal. I think he and Gus Van Sant actually had homes on the same street in Palm Springs

Very sad to hear about Udo Kier as well. Tracking down and importing the Criterion DVD edition of Flesh For Frankenstein was my introduction to Criterion back in the day! (And despite having upgraded to the Severin edition and the non-anamorphic 1998 Criterion DVD now appearing as a tiny window in the middle of a modern television, I still keep it for its great commentary track on which Kier appears). His small scene in Lars von Trier's Epidemic, where he breaks down over his mother's death, is very powerful.

So many interesting films as well: his Flesh For Frankenstein (And its "To know life Otto..." infamous quote) and Blood For Dracula for Paul Morrisey are key, but in that early period he turns up in British video nasty (and kind of Straw Dogs-sploitation) The House On Straw Hill aka Exposé, which I wrote up here. He's also another hunky heterosexual stud in Just Jaekin's infamous S&M film The Story of O (which I still think worked best when the Exploitica series re-edited the film into the story of a particularly dim and trusting young lady and re-titled it "The Story of D'Oh"!). After all the talk of Borowczyk's Lulu in the other threads, he makes a significant appearance in that film too (and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osborne). And he also turns up in Argento's Suspiria, which turns an otherwise rote expository scene about what witchcraft is into a bizarre island of airly agroaphobic expertise with its combination of Udo and its weird choice of location!

But beyond the exploitation films like Spermula, he covers a significant group of filmmakers: multiple Fassbinders; multiple Lars von Triers (he often gets used as a kind of totem of malign forces becoming manifested, but I particularly liked his small role in Melancholia as the wedding organiser who is so affronted by Kirsten Dunst’s actions of ruining the wedding in the first section of that film that he refuses to acknowledge her throughout, and ostentatiously flounces off every time he encounters her!); Wim Wenders' L.A. film The End of Violence as a frustrated arthouse director trying to work in Hollywood; in Werner Herzog's Invincible and My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done; E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire; dancing with a lamp and perfoming his own song "Mr Klein" in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho; a couple of Rob Zombie films with the cameo filled 2007 remake of Halloween and The Lords of Salem; Guy Maddin's The Forbidden Room and Keyhole; the best part of S. Craig Zahler's Brawl in Cell Block 99 (and he turns up in Zahler's next film Dragged Across Concrete too); up to the Kleber Mendonça Filho relationship with Bacurau and this year's The Secret Agent.

And then there are the cameos in 'entertainment' movies: the despairing psychiatrist in one scene of Armageddon; the Satanic doctor at the beginning of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film End of Days, getting a vampiric execution in Blade. Playing fully into the sterotype in those Iron Sky films and his Rob Zombie Grindhouse trailer. Turning up in the ill fated Johnny Mnemonic. And of course the film he remained fiercely proud of in interviews, turning up playing the Sam-equivalent in Casablanca remake Barb Wire!

Still making interesting and entertaining films up to the end too with Swan Song, The Painted Bird, The Mountain, Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot et al.

And he is seemingly amongst the cast of the upcoming Hideo Kojima videogame O.D., which looks to be Kojima's next attempt at a horror game after P.T.

[colinr0380]

Bollywood star Dharmendra, most famous for starring with Amitabh Bachcan in 1975 classic Sholay.

Quite a lot of his films turned up on Channel 4 in the UK back in the day in their annual Indian film seasons - out of those I got the chance to see, he appears in Bimal Roy's 1963 film Bandini; Raj Kapoor's 'tears of a clown' melodramatic tragedy My Name Is Joker and starred in two action films for director Arjun Hingorani: 1970's Kab? Kyon? Aur Kahan? (When? Why? And Where?) and 1981's Katilon ke Kaatil (The Killer's Killers)

[hearthesilence]

Obviously vastly more important as one of Jamaica's key musical figures, but starring in The Harder They Come didn't exactly do his career any harm. And it's still arguably the greatest Jamaican film ever made.

Here's Alex Cox's introduction to The Harder They Come on its Moviedrome screening in 1994. That's a really great film and one of the best singer-in-a-lead-role performances as well. It helps that it has autobiographical aspects interwoven into its fall and rise before fall again story, and uses Many Rivers To Cross and You Can Get It If You Really Want in addition to The Harder They Come on its soundtrack.

That's an extremely rare alignment of a great landmark film actually producing a great landmark album. I can't honestly can't think of a better example aside from A Hard Day's Night (as long as we're talking about the UK edition of the album). Even though Cliff only has four songs, those four songs are among his very greatest work, maybe even his greatest period, but it's really nitpicking to dwell on the number when he's the lead actor carrying the entire movie.

[Mr.DarjeelingLimited]

Bollywood star Dharmendra, most famous for starring with Amitabh Bachcan in 1975 classic Sholay.

Quite a lot of his films turned up on Channel 4 in the UK back in the day in their annual Indian film seasons - out of those I got the chance to see, he appears in Bimal Roy's 1963 film Bandini; Raj Kapoor's 'tears of a clown' melodramatic tragedy My Name Is Joker and starred in two action films for director Arjun Hingorani: 1970's Kab? Kyon? Aur Kahan? (When? Why? And Where?) and 1981's Katilon ke Kaatil (The Killer's Killers)

This made me really sad. Of course he is great in Sholay but I always loved Mera Naam Joker. Great film, great performances from both Raj Kapoor himself and Dharmendra. Rishi Kapoor is really good as a young version of his fathers character as well.

[Swift]

During the Covid shutdown, my wife and I had a bit of a weekly ritual where we would watch a Bollywood movie from the 70s or 80s, movies she grew up watching. Dharmendra was my father-in-law's favourite actor (not just because of his screen presence but also because he was Punjabi born when I believe that was rare in Bollywood?) and we ended up watching a handful of his films. Wikipedia tells me that Loafer from 1973 was the biggest hit of his movies we watched, but I only remember it being fairly bad and I was left wondering why he was such a big star. 1980's The Burning Train, a Bollywood take on the disaster movie popular in Hollywood at that time, and 1987's ridiculous action film Loha were much more entertaining.

[brundlefly]

Tom Stoppard.

[colinr0380]

Lots of adaptations of other author's work to the screen (Graham Greene with The Human Factor; J.G. Ballard with Empire of the Sun; Tolstoy in the 2012 Joe Wright version of Anna Karenina; Nabokov in Fassbinder's film Despair; John le Carré with The Russia House; Robert Harris with Enigma; the BBC version of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End), though perhaps the 'purest' form of Stoppard in film (and the only film he directed) is of his own play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which is his other speculative extrapolation of Shakespeare, years before Shakespeare in Love.

There is also a great moment in Terry Gilliam's commentary for Brazil where he says that only Stoppard could have come up with using an anagram of Jeremiah for the " 'ere I Am, J.H." clue for the password to the executive lift!

[Lowry_Sam]

Nice detail! It would make a great epitaph too!

[beamish14]

Lots of adaptations of other author's work to the screen (Graham Greene with The Human Factor; J.G. Ballard with Empire of the Sun; Tolstoy in the 2012 Joe Wright version of Anna Karenina; Nabokov in Fassbinder's film Despair; John le Carré with The Russia House; Robert Harris with Enigma; the BBC version of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End), though perhaps the 'purest' form of Stoppard in film (and the only film he directed) is of his own play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which is his other speculative extrapolation of Shakespeare, years before Shakespeare in Love.

There is also a great moment in Terry Gilliam's commentary for Brazil where he says that only Stoppard could have come up with using an anagram of Jeremiah for the " 'ere I Am, J.H." clue for the password to the executive lift!

Stoppard’s unfilmed prologue for Brazil, which traced the insect that eventually sets into motion the bureaucratic mistake which results in Sam Lowry’s downfall from its home in a rainforest that is rapidly being leveled, would have been incredible

He changed theatre forever. It’s a shame that Kazuo Ishiguro got the Nobel a few years ago instead of him, as plays like Arcadia are just astounding achievements

[Mr Sausage]

Because of my weird habit of overlooking modern drama I’m familiar with Stoppard entirely from his work in film! In fact I think I first learned of him from the extras on Criterion’s original Brazil DVD (still remember that anecdote colinr#### relates above). Time to go grab Arcadia from the library I guess.

[beamish14]

Because of my weird habit of overlooking modern drama I’m familiar with Stoppard entirely from his work in film! In fact I think I first learned of him from the extras on Criterion’s original Brazil DVD (still remember that anecdote colinr#### relates above). Time to go grab Arcadia from the library I guess.

I strongly recommend reading/watching Squaring the Circle, which Mike Hodges directed for television in 1984. The Real Thing is so wonderful as well. Cynthia Nixon and Jeremy Irons starred in its 1985 Broadway production, and you can hear a production from the great LA Theatre Works

[Beloved Aunt]

The Russia House which Tom Stoppard wrote is a superb John le Carre adaptation, which anyone who likes le Carre should see (and would love).

[GaryC]

Australian actress Toni Lamond, aged 93.

[hearthesilence]

Steve Cropper, guitarist for Booker T. & the MG’s, Stax/Volt's legendary house band who backed many of their artists, above all Otis Redding. Cropper also co-wrote and produced many of their greatest records, the most famous of which is likely "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay." (Cropper had to finish it after Redding died, and it went on to become the first posthumous #1 single in the US.)

[Matt]

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, ubiquitous actor in western martial arts movies including Mortal Kombat and Tekken.

[colinr0380]

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, ubiquitous actor in western martial arts movies including Mortal Kombat and Tekken.

One of his bigger roles was playing the prime suspect of the murder case in Philip Kaufman's adaptation of Michael Crichton's Rising Sun.

[GaryC]

Not yet noted here, Irish writer and activist Margaretta D'Arcy, died on 23 November aged 91. As well as her own work, she frequently collaborated on stage with her husband, John Arden (who died in 2012). She was also an occasional actress, and may have played the lead in the 1962 film Top Deck (an extra on the BFI's release of Jungle Fever) though if so she is billed as Ruth D'Arcy, Ruth being her middle name.

[Orlac]

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, ubiquitous actor in western martial arts movies including Mortal Kombat and Tekken.

It always cracked me up in Showdown in Little Tokyo that he was meant to have killed Dolph Lundgren's parents when Lundgren was a child...and there is less than a decade's age-gap between them!

[hearthesilence]

Babies making babies - just sick!

[Brian C]

Sean Connery was still only 11 when Harrison Ford was born … it was just a different time.

[beamish14]

Sean Connery was still only 11 when Harrison Ford was born … it was just a different time.

Hey, Laurence Harvey managed to be conceived just 3 years after Angela Lansbury was born

[hearthesilence]

Frank Gehry, who was perhaps the most famous architect alive, having designed some of the world’s most recognizable masterworks, at age 96.

[feihong]

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, ubiquitous actor in western martial arts movies including Mortal Kombat and Tekken.

I knew him as the cool alien in a 90s TV series called Space Rangers, with a pretty absurd cast that included Linda Hunt and Gottfried John, cancelled after something like 5 episodes.

Then I saw Rising Sun, for some reason, and recognized him there as Eddie Sakamura. By the time of Mortal Combat I knew him as a guy who might show up anywhere, except in a lead role, and more than likely as a villain. Never really given his due, I think. Rising Sun was an awful movie, and an awful idea for a story, but it could have been much more intriguing if it was about Eddie Sakamura, Japanese-American guy semi-reluctantly involved in yakuza crime in the U.S., uncomfortably straddling two worlds, wrongfully accused of a murder he just happens to be pretty adjacent to.

[colinr0380]

The photographer Martin Parr, who recently had a documentary I Am Martin Parr dedicated to him, but was given the widest exposure by the BBC "One-ness" idents that ran constantly between December 2016 and April 2022.