Tim Conway was an American actor and comedian.
RIP Bruce Bickford (1947 – 2019)
Bruce Bickford was an American animator, who worked primarily in clay animation. From 1974 to 1980, he collaborated with Frank Zappa.
Bickford’s animation was featured extensively in the Frank Zappa videos Baby Snakes and The Dub Room Special.
Zappa also released a video titled The Amazing Mr. Bickford, which was entirely composed of Bickford animations set to a soundtrack of Zappa’s orchestral music.
RIP Jean-Pierre Marielle (1932 – 2019)
Jean-Pierre Marielle was a French actor.
I have very warm recollections of the film Coup de Torchon (1981).
In the scene above Marielle is shot by Noiret.
There is a complete version of the film … Comme la lune (1977), a period piece of 1970s French mores.
RIP Dave Samuels (1948 – 2019)
Dave Samuels was an American percussionist known for his work with the jazz fusion group Spyro Gyra.
His composition “New Math” (1988) was included on Joe Claussell’s compilation Music… A Reason To Celebrate (2001).
He is one of those unsung heroes like Daniel Ponce, another percussionist who died in 2013 but whose death only came to my attention this February.[1]
RIP Ryszard Kaja (1962 – 2019)
Ryszard Kaja was a Polish painter, poster artist, stage designer, and costume designer.
Kaja was new to me, but his work seems like it comes straight of the post-war era, the height of the Polish film poster age.
RIP John McEnery (1943 – 2019)
John McEnery was an English actor and writer. He played the clerk Bartleby in the 1970 film version of Melville’s Bartleby.
You can scroll to 3:06 to hear McEnery utter the immortal words: “I would prefer not to.”
RIP Bibi Andersson (1935 – 2019)
Bibi Andersson was a Swedish actress known for films such as The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957) and Persona (1966).
Dick Cavett: “It’s always said that Ingmar Berman [sitting next to her] understands women. Would you say that’s true?”
Bibi Andersson [hesitating, then nodding]: “Eeehh yes.”
RIP Seymour Cassel (1935 – 2019)
Seymour Cassel was an American actor known for his many collaborations with John Cassavetes.
Above is the full version of Minnie and Moskowitz (1971). It’s quite a wonderful film, reminiscent of the film Harold and Maude (1971), which also deals with an unlikely romance.
Grotesques in Antwerp
The Antwerp Plantin-Moretus Museum currently hosts Grotesques. A fascinating fantasy world.
Highlights include four of the Pourtraicture ingenieuse de plusieurs façon de Masques by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt and two prints of caricatures by Philippe de Soye and Hans Liefrinck I after Leonardo da Vinci.
Some photographic impressions can be found below.
One of the four
Pourtraicture ingenieuse de plusieurs façon de Masques by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt
One of the four
Pourtraicture ingenieuse de plusieurs façon de Masques by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt
One of the four
Pourtraicture ingenieuse de plusieurs façon de Masques by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt
One of the four
Pourtraicture ingenieuse de plusieurs façon de Masques by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt
One of the
caricatures after Leonardo da Vinci
One of the
caricatures after Leonardo da Vinci
See also: Flemish fantastique and grotesque
RIP Agnès Varda (1928 – 2019)
Agnès Varda was a Belgian-born French film director.
Her films were popular among critics and directors, giving her the status of a cult director.
This is perhaps not the best of times to rid the world of a minor misconception regarding the work of Varda, but it is what I must do after researching her oeuvre following her death.
Agnès Varda made one film about the Black Panther Party, just one. That film was Black Panthers (1968), a color film which can be viewed in its entirety at Archive.org[1].
Another film from that same year is called Huey! and is directed by a certain Sally Pugh. It can be seen in full on YouTube [below] and has nothing to do with Varda, although the general subject matter as well as some scenes overlap.