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As one of his films was titled in German: "Sie nannten ihn Mücke - dafür machte er sie alle zur Schnecke".

Well, I loved this guy when I was eight or ten years old. Trying to rewatch any of his films nowadays was a completely embarassing experience. Still sad to learn about his death now.

Pat Summitt

Buddy Ryan

Sir Mack Rice, songwriter who composed "Mustang Sally," "Respect Yourself"

There's a terrific Mack Rice song Love Sickness, which sounds like classic Johnnie Taylor (Rice wrote one key Taylor hit, Cheaper To Keep Her) and not too far off classic Otis Redding. Love Sickness was released as a single by MAck Rice on Stax, and can be found on the big Stax singles box set.

So key to the great sound of the early Elvis material.

Robin Hardy

That's a shame to hear, though at least he was able to record his thoughts on The Wicker Man on that film's commentary. I'm sure that Mark Kermode will be working on some form of appreciation of Hardy's work.

I've not had a chance to see The Fantasist as yet, but it sounds as if it could be as quirky a take on a standard serial killer film idea as Donald Cammell's White of the Eye was.

Caroline Aherne.

No English-language sources yet, but Chen Yunshang (a.k.a. Nancy Chan) died on the 29th, aged 96. She was an early star of Cantonese cinema before moving to Shanghai and making her best-known films, Mulan Joins the Army (1939) and the anti-British Eternity (1942), co-starring Yamaguchi Yoshiko. The latter was shot under the Japanese occupation in collaboration with the Manchukuo Film Association and is evidently still such a sensitive topic that most of her mainland Chinese obituaries delicately skip over it.

Calvin wrote:Michael Cimino

Dammit. Despite the odds, I always hoped he'd get the chance to make one last film.

Elie Wiesel

Second half of the year off to quite a start

What a dreadful day.

Calvin wrote:Michael Cimino

Well, damn. I just watched Desparate Hours the other day and penned a snarky negative review of it, so this is weird. I have problems with Cimino in general but he was certainly something of a major talent... There are stretches in Heaven's Gate that are really astonishing, and I've always been open to the idea that he really is as great as many say he is; I plan on finishing his filmography ASAP and evaluating it in all its highs and lows.

And now Wiesel... A sad day, indeed.

And the Great Geoffrey Hill yesterday.

Calvin wrote:Michael Cimino

I've recently been watching a lot of Cimino's filmography and I am becoming increasingly convinced that The Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate are truly major achievements and that as a director, despite his personals faults, he was capable of greatness, always knowing where to place his camera to capture the beauty of any situation.

There's also the great Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, which strikes me as an interesting modernised road movie-riff on the Of Mice and Men idea. Even Cimino's less interesting films like the home invasion thriller remake of Desperate Hours (though it has a great cast) still feel relationship focused and based around the building and fragmenting of ersatz family units than on any of their particular plots, which still makes them worth watching.

I still haven't seen The Sicilian yet but this might be the time to pick up the recent Shout Factory release of the director's cut of it.

Abbas Kiarostami
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/j ... maker-dies" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Kiarostami thread here