Richard Corben was an American illustrator and comic book artist.
I liked his coloring.
Here the short film Neverwhere, from the film Heavy Metal.
He said sweet things about my hero Tanino Liberatore’s creation RanXerox.
RIP Harold Budd (1936 – 2020)
Harold Budd was an American composer working primarily in ambient music.
His two collaborations with Brian Eno, 1980’s The Plateaux of Mirror and 1984’s The Pearl, established his trademark atmospheric piano style.
Update: it took a Facebook comment of David Toop to bring Budd’s best work to my attention:”Bismillahi ‘Rrahman’ Rrahim” (1975):
Budd’s track on the Marion Brown Vista album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjNqksj0mkk&ab_channel=ishimats
and Budd’s own recording of that track on The Pavillion of Dreams.
RIP Howard Wales (1943 – 2020)
Howard Wales was a keyboardist best known for his collaborations with Jerry Garcia in the early 1970s.
However, solo, he produced little gems such as this “Rendez-Vous With The Sun, Part. 2” on his album of almost the same name in 1976.
The tracks is also included in DJ Harvey’s cult mix “Sarcastic Disco Volume 2” which you will find on Soundcloud.
RIP and thank you for the music.
RIP Emmanuelle Arsan (1932 – 2005)
This happened some time ago. But the general public only found out years later that Emmanuelle Arsan had died. At first it said that it happened in 2007, but later it appeared to be in 2005.
More than any fictional character Emmanuelle was the symbol of the sexually liberated woman, celebrating her new freedom because of the pill, the main cause of the sexual revolution.
The funny thing about this Thai born woman, is that nobody today can confirm that it is she who wrote the Emmanuelle novels, some say it was her husband.
What is certain though, is that my hero Eric Losfeld published the first novel of the series clandestinely in 1959 as Emmanuelle (1959).
About the re-writing that has happened since 1959, the book Censure, autocensure et art d’écrire: de l’antiquité à nos jours (2004) by Jacques Domenech notes that the first version was ‘harder‘, more hardcore.
For the occasion of this post, I watched the Italian film Io, Emmanuelle (1969), which seems a better film than the 1974 Sylvia Kristel vehicle.
But this 1969 version has nothing to do with Emmanuelle.
The name Emmanuelle has gone on to become a by-word for erotic films and conjures up an image of the rotan peacock chair which was used as a publicity shot in the 1974 film starring Sylvia Kristel.
RIP François Leterrier (1929 – 2020)
François Leterrier was a French film director and actor. He entered the film industry when he was cast in Robert Bresson’s film A Man Escaped (1956).
Goodbye Emmanuelle (1977) features a reggae-inspired soundtrack by Serge Gainsbourg.
His sketch film Slices of Life (1985) is a bit silly but features the prescient and good-hearted “Paris sera toujours Paris” which is an illustration of the Great Replacement theory.
RIP Jutta Lampe (1937 – 2020)
Jutta Lampe was a German actress best-known for her film Marianne and Juliane (1981).
In that film she plays the ‘good’ sister, the regular journalist. The ‘bad’ sister has joined the RAF.
Many people forget, but Europe during the 1970s and 1980s, witnessed a series of bloody terrorist attacks rivalling the islamist terrorism of today.
RIP David Prowse (1935 – 2020)
David Prowse was an English bodybuilder and actor known for his parts in Star Wars, A Clockwork Orange and Jabberwocky.
In my book, he is the Frankenstein on the cover of Midi Minuit Fantastique 24 (12/1970) in a still from Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), see above.
RIP Jörg Schröder (1938 – 2020)
Jörg Schröder was a German writer and publisher.
He founded countercultural publishing house März Verlag in 1969 and published books such as Sexfront (1970), instrumental to the sexual revolution in Germany.
RIP Daria Nicolodi (1950 – 2020)
Daria Nicolodi was an Italian actress known for her collaborations with Mario Bava.
RIP Diego Maradona (1960 – 2020)
Diego Maradona was an iconic association football player.
For people not into football, he was the obese Latin American in the film Youth (2015) by cult director Paolo Sorrentino.
In the scene above he kicks a tennis ball repeatedly into the air.
One with the ball.