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There's a big retrospective of her work playing in Brussels (where I was last weekend) at the moment.

jbeall wrote:Terrible news. It doesn't appear from the news release that she was ill. RIP.

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Very sad!

Very sad, and far too young. I was coincidentally listening to a podcast (Cinephiliacs) two days ago where Peter is discussing her last (now: final) film, Almayer's Folly that is a Joseph Conrad adaption. I was going to order it from the NY Public Library but they don't have a copy. I don't believe I have seen many of her films besides the Eclipse set and of course Jeanne Dielman. The latter has such a profound affect on me, and still stays with me many years later. It isn't an easy film to sit through for me considering its length but I have always wanted to revisit it. While certainly not necessary to enjoy the film, I wonder if Criterion might try to upgrade Jeanne Dielman to BD in light of this sad event.

Actually, she has a new film called "No Home Movie" that screens this week at the NYFF. It doesn't have distribution (yet) so I highly recommend seeing it. Tickets are sold out for the first two screenings, but Sunday's may still have some.

jbeall wrote:Terrible news. It doesn't appear from the news release that she was ill. RIP.

No, in fact just yesterday it was announced that she was going to participate in an upcoming MoMA PS1 exhibit (I believe this month too). This was very sudden.

The Guardian reports... Cause of death being put down to suicide ("Chantal Akerman s’est donné la mort"...)

The death is unexpected: the film-maker was at the Locarno film festival last month with new film No Home Movie, a video essay about her mother, Natalia, an Auschwitz survivor who died in 2014, and whose anxieties were a perennial concern in Akerman’s work.

The film was badly received, with boos at its premiere, and this negative reception is said to have “devastated” the film-maker. The New York Times reports that friends feared for Akerman, who had “previously suffered emotional breakdowns”. Her death was confirmed on Tuesday by her sister, Sylviane Akerman, and by Nicola Mazzanti, the director of the Royal Belgian Film Archive. Le Monde are reporting the death as suicide.

How awful. I've been going through her movies and beginning to really appreciate her work. I was already planning to watch the film News From Home from the Eclipse box tonight.

I guess I won't meet her at Lyon Lumière Festival then.

ellipsis7 wrote:The Guardian reports... Cause of death being put down to suicide ("Chantal Akerman s’est donné la mort"...)

The death is unexpected: the film-maker was at the Locarno film festival last month with new film No Home Movie, a video essay about her mother, Natalia, an Auschwitz survivor who died in 2014, and whose anxieties were a perennial concern in Akerman’s work.

The film was badly received, with boos at its premiere, and this negative reception is said to have “devastated” the film-maker. The New York Times reports that friends feared for Akerman, who had “previously suffered emotional breakdowns”. Her death was confirmed on Tuesday by her sister, Sylviane Akerman, and by Nicola Mazzanti, the director of the Royal Belgian Film Archive. Le Monde are reporting the death as suicide.

That is tragic. Jeanne Dielman is a masterpiece.

Saddened by the Akerman news, RIP to a truly brilliant artist.

Chef Paul Prudhomme...who if you're a foodie, probably affects your life a whole hell of lot. He was one of the first guys to locally source his ingredients.
As a kid though-I always confused this guy with Dom DeLuise!

Indie comics stalwart Dennis Eichhorn has passed.

That's sad. Real Stuff was among the best of the autobiographical comix of the period.

Yes. Especially shocking considering his Extra Good Stuff comic came out just a few months back.

Boing Boing has a whole bunch of his stories up on their site. Here's the one where he met Hunter S. Thompson.

Don't have a link for it, but Lucy (Kelly Reichardt's dog, seen in Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy) reportedly passed away sometime in September.

Screenwriter Christopher Wood according to a Roger Moore tweet

Eureka (and therefore MoC) head honcho Ron Benson.

How old was he? Is this likely to affect Eureka?

perkizitore wrote:How old was he? Is this likely to affect Eureka?

71 or 72, depending on when his birthday was.

And Eureka says "We'd appreciate your patience over the coming days. A huge blow to everyone here."

MichaelB wrote:Eureka (and therefore MoC) head honcho Ron Benson.

Sad news. I used Mr. Benson's mail order service years before our family had any internet connection. I recall those full page ads in every issue of Empire, and when I placed my first order I got a "Mr. Benson"-binder along with my VHS-tapes. And from then on, every month I'd get a newsletter in the mail listing all the new releases and other good offers, and the newsletters slowly filled the binder till it nearly burst. I still have it laying around somewhere. I was also sent (or bought?) a book catalogue listing every in-print VHS release in the UK, and must have gone through it from cover to cover with a marker, highlighting every single title I wanted. The VHS selection was rather meagre in Norway at the time, so this was an endless treasure trove for me. Sometimes I couldn't believe my father would fill out his credit card info without hesitation when I sent these mail orders, and waiting for the package to eventually arrive could be unbearable at times...it could lead to disappointments too, as I'd sometimes wait for nearly a month only to get a letter from Benson with the message: "Sorry. This title has been deleted". Those were the days before e-mail

Is this the Benson of Benson's World?

Yes, the same. Took a while before I realized he was the same guy who founded Eureka.