criterionforum.org

I just recently re-watched the incredibly grim, very sleazy Full Contact in September and was struck over how well the film's style has aged. The shoot-out in the bar with the proto-bullet time shots surprised me as much as it did the first time I saw it and was in awe with the incredible looking final scene. I never saw his recent Sky on Fire, a reference to his other "on fire" films like the excellent City on Fire and Prison on Fire, but I did watch Wild City and found it to be a film that felt like it resented the upcoming generation of Hong Kong actors and directors as caricatures of annoying young men with bad tattoos, bad clothes and terrible haircuts get wailed on by middle-aged men for an hour-and-a-half. I've been sitting on my laserdisc copy of Touch and Go for a few months, but picked it up as I'm intrigued about seeing an optimist like Sammo Hung teamed up with Lam, who seems to not like people very much. His stature in Hong Kong cinema hasn't dropped the way so many others have, especially after the '97 handover, so it's a tragedy to hear about his sudden passing at only 63.

While his last films suffered the problems typical of modern HK films – bland talent pool, atrocious CGI, anemic lack of scope or ambition – they did at least feel like an old hand getting back in the swing of things. I was hopeful he would do something great soon. But he left a lasting filmography which is overdue for rediscovery: his non-Chow Yun-Fat still get far too little attention.

June Whitfield at 93.

She appeared in one of the earliest Carry On films, 1959's Carry On Nurse, as well as a few of the ones at the tail end in the early 1970s - Carry On Abroad and Carry On Girls - as well as the rather ill advised attempt to reboot the series, 1992's Carry On Columbus, in which she played Queen Isabella of Castille in the same year as Sigourney Weaver (1492: Conquest of Paradise) and Rachel Ward (Christopher Columbus: The Discovery)!

On TV she had late fame as the shrewdly dotty mother in Absolutely Fabulous, but is probably most famous for the 1970s sitcom with Terry Scott, Terry and June, as well as appearing as the nurse in the blood donor episode of Hancock's Half Hour. Radio-wise though she was a regular on The News Huddlines with Roy Hudd, which had a rare excursion into television in the late 1980s

Mrinal Sen, aged 95

Bob Einstein discussion moved here

Dead or Deader wrote: Wed Jan 02, 2019 6:56 pm Gene Okerlund

Someone on a wrestling board put it much better than I could

"All of the shit we cared about so much as kids made sense almost solely because of him."

He set a standard that's still being followed today by those in his role in WWE and the other companies in business today, or for the last 30-odd years. Even when he was in WCW, his charisma faded because of age, he was still indispensable for what he did.

British film critic, journalist, researcher and major behind-the-scenes industry player Nick Roddick.

(The attached obituary includes the fascinating nugget that Tom Watt - aka Lofty in EastEnders - wrote a university thesis paper on Walerian Borowczyk!)

CSM126 wrote: Thu Jan 03, 2019 12:04 am Daryl “The Captain” Dragon

The Captain and Tenille were of course pivotal in bringing the Yacht Rock crowd together...apparently (it might be where Michael McDonald hooked up with the other Doobies).

Ray Sawyer, leader vocalist of Dr. Hook:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/ ... r-obituary

Eric Haydock, bassist and founding member of the Hollies.

Coincidentally, I spent a good chunk of last weekend exploring the Hollies' music. I only knew a handful of hits and never grew interested in them - they seemed too lightweight - but after hearing how much some people loved them I thought there might be something worth discovering. Not in the same league as the great British bands of the '60s, but a solid pop band with at least a dozen (maybe even two dozen) wonderful little singles stretching into the '70s. And one commendable album (Evolution) that was one of the better ones in the immediate wake of Sgt. Pepper.

Monsignor John C. Sanders, 93. "Known to jazz fans across the country as the priest who played in the Duke Ellington Band, Monsignor Sanders was also much loved in our own diocese as a humble priest and pastor who was grateful for the gift of his vocation."

Annalise Braakensiek, Australian model and actress, aged 46, a suicide. Her best known film role was in Fat Pizza (2003), and she played the same role in the subsequent TV series.

Vocalist Clydie King, often heard (though not always known) for her backup vocals on numerous classic recordings for Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Sweet Home Alabama"), the Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street), Steely Dan, Elton John, Bob Dylan's "born again" recordings, and many more.

Alan Pearlman, founder of and principal engineer at ARP Instruments (2500, 2600, Odyssey)

Music critic Bill Wyman wrote:Ruth Brown was the catalyst for an important change in the way the industry did business in the mid-1980s — which is a polite way
to say that she helped expose the criminal activities of Ahmet Ertegun and many other labels during that time. This was at the dawn of the CD
age, where classic reissues were just beginning to send money pouring into the labels’ bottom lines. While under law, the artists were
entitled both to royalties and to royalty statements, most of course hadn’t gotten any of either for decades. (Labels either claimed they
were still recouping production costs or were just keeping the money.) Brown one day looked askance at an album a fan asked her to
sign, noting that she hadn’t gotten royalties from it. The fan turned out to be a canny lawyer. The pair went on a PR offensive, which in
turn started a movement that resulted in most of the major labels wiping their books clean on many seminal rock and R&B musicians
and starting paying royalties again.

That canny lawyer was Howell Begle, who co-founded the Rhythm & Blues Foundation to make sure these artists didn't live out their twilight years penniless and without health care. He passed away last week.

While best known as a backup singer, Clydie King recorded a fair amount as a lead singer as well, if you want to hear what she sounded like. From late 50's/early 60's girl group-style singles to 70's soul. Also as a member of the Blackberries. You can peruse her discography here.

Clydie King is also on film, as one of Barbra Streisand's backup singers in A Star Is Born, along with Venetta Fields.

Buttery Jeb wrote: Thu Jan 10, 2019 9:19 pm Verna Bloom

Sad to hear this. She was superb in Fonda's The Hired Hand, particularly her touching scene with Warren Oates. Some lazy-arsed journalism in that Variety article though! The Hired Hand was 1971, not 1981! The Last Temptation of Christ was 1988, not 1998!