Tag Archives: 1970s

RIP Rip Torn (1931 – 2019)

Rip Torn was an American actor. To an international audience he is remembered for his roles in Coming Apart (1969), Maidstone (1970), Tropic of Cancer (1970) and The Man Who Fell to Earth (1974).

Excerpt of Coming Apart
Famous hammer hitting scene of Maidstone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oywm-RcQ4mQ&t=195s
Tropic of Cancer, full Italian dubbed version
The Man Who Fell to Earth trailer

The book Cult Movie Stars describes his integrity and says that he “took parts only in films that he considered artistic and/or politically correct.”

He was also known for his on-set conflicts. While filming Maidstone for example, Torn struck director and star Norman Mailer in the head with a hammer. With the camera rolling, Mailer bit Torn’s ear and they wrestled to the ground. The fight continued until it was broken up by cast and crew members. The fight is featured in the film.

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).

Trailer for Persona


Trailer for The Seventh Seal


Trailer for Wild Strawberries


Excerpt from The Dick Cavett Show (1971) with Ingmar Bergman and Bibi Andersson

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.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9bUMZIKTfs
Dance scene and funny mirrors scene in Flickorna (1968), set to an unidentified tune.

RIP Scott Walker (1943 – 2019)

Scott Walker was an American-born British singer-songwriter, composer and record producer.

First active with the band The Walker Brothers, Walker evolved from sappy and catchy recordings with an edge of sadness (“Make It Easy on Yourself“, 1965; and “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine (Anymore)“, 1966) to more experimental work (Nite Flights, 1978).

He would continue this course of experimentation in his solo work, culminating with albums such as The Drift which was as scary as it was gentle, luckily not at the same time.

RIP Carolee Schneemann (1939 – 2019)

Carolee Schneemann was an American artist who flourished in the 1960s and 1970s with her “body art”

Her best-known piece is Interior Scroll (1975), a performance in which she produced a scroll from her vagina while standing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB-OMgol-YE

Her films include Fuses (1967) in which Schneemann and her then-boyfriend James Tenney are having sex, a reaction to Stan Brakhage’s Window Water Baby Moving (1959) which shows Brakhage’s wife giving birth.

Above are fragments of Fuses set to an educative narration made as a school or university assignment.

RIP Lasse Braun (1936 – 2015)

RIP Lasse Braun (1936 – 2015).

He was one of the last living protagonists of the ‘porno chic‘ era. The only two survivors now are Radley Metzger (1929) and Tinto Brass (1933).

Here are two clips from Youtube (of all places)

An animated short film, a collaboration of Siné and Braun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LKS2O7W5v8

And this rarity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwUHjlbiYew

Body Love, a film by Braun starring Catherine Ringer, with music by Klaus Schulze.

I previously paid attention to Lasse Braun here[1].