Ivan Passer was a Czech film director best known for his film Cutter’s Way (1981).
Tag Archives: RIP
RIP Buck Henry (1930 – 2020)
Buck Henry was an American actor (Eating Raoul), screenwriter (The Graduate, Catch-22, Candy) and director (Heaven Can Wait).
RIP Neda Arnerić (1953 – 2020)
Neda Arnerić was a Serbian actress.
In Shaft in Africa (1973) she is Jazar (above):
Jazar : How long is your phallus, Mr. Shaft?
Shaft : My what?
Jazar : Your cock?
Shaft : Baby, by now it shrunk down to 20 inches.
Arnerić was considered a sex symbol of Yugoslav cinema.
RIP Elizabeth ‘Prozac Nation’ Wurtzel (1967 – 2020)
Elizabeth Wurtzel was an American writer, best known for her novel Prozac Nation (1994).
The first lines of that novel read:
“I start to get the feeling that something is really wrong. Like all the drugs put together-the lithium, the Prozac, the desipramine, and Desyrel that I take to sleep at night-can no longer combat whatever it is that was wrong with me in the first place. I feel like a defective model, like I came off the assembly line flat-out fucked and my parents should have taken me back for repairs before the warranty ran out.
Here is the film.
It’s not very good. But it will take you less time than reading the book and you’ll get it all the same.
RIP John ‘dots over people’s faces’ Baldessari (1931 – 2020)
John Baldessari was an American artist.
A typical Baldessari work is Painting for Kubler (1967–68) which is a painting of a text paraphrasing five theses from art historian George Kubler’s book The Shape of Time (1962).
The text reads:
“This painting owes its existence to prior paintings. By liking this solution, you should not be blocked in your continued acceptance of prior inventions. To attain this position, ideas of former painting had to be rethought in order to transcend former work. To like this painting, you will have to understand prior work. Ultimately this work will amalgamate with the existing body of knowledge.”
In his own analysis, he said he would be best remembered as “the guy who puts dots over people’s faces.”
RIP Neil ‘Monty Python’ Innes (1944 – 2019)
Neil Innes was an English comedian (Monty Python), musician (The Rutles, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band) and writer.
RIP Sue ‘Lolita’ Lyon (1946 – 2019)
Sue Lyon was an American actress best-known as the nymphet of Lolita (1962).
My film bible Cult Movie Stars has this:
“Amid much publicity stating she was too young even to see the film, an unknown blonde was cast in the title role in Lolita.”
Lyon’s final film role was in the mildly amusing Alligator (1980).
RIP Alasdair ‘Lanark’ Gray (1934 – 2019)
Alasdair Gray was a Scottish writer and artist.
His magnum opus Lanark (1981) features a skin disease called ‘dragonhide’.
Adjectives applicable to this work are grotesque, fantastique and rabelaisian.
The book has a tendency to depress.
Update: The skin disease ‘dragonhide’ reminds me of Maldoror: “I am filthy. I am riddled with lice. Hogs, when they look at me, vomit. My skin is encrusted with the scabs and scales of leprosy, and covered with yellowish pus.”
RIP Garrett List (1943 – 2019)
Garrett List was an American musician, known as a trombonist, vocalist, and composer.
Other trombonists I admire include Rico Rodriguez, Peter Zummo, Vin Gordon, Don Drummond, Fred Wesley and Willie Colón.
RIP Jerry ‘I Am What I Am’ Herman (1931 – 2019)
Jerry Herman was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway musical theater. He composed the scores for the hit Broadway musicals Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles. He was nominated for the Tony Award five times, and won twice, for Hello, Dolly! and La Cage aux Folles.
By pure coincidence I was watching Paris Is Burning (1990) this afternoon, it features the Jerry Herman-penned gay anthem “I Am What I Am” from La Cage Aux Folles.