Who's Next To Croak?

[jenkins]

On 12 May 2014, H. R. Giger died in a hospital after having suffered dangerous injuries when he tripped and fell down some stairs.

[Lottery]

[MacGuffin]

'Searching for Sugar Man' director Malik Bendjelloul dies at 36

STOCKHOLM — Malik Bendjelloul, the cash-strapped freelance film maker who shot to Hollywood stardom overnight with the Oscar-winning music documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," has died. He was 36. 

Swedish police spokeswoman Pia Glenvik told The Associated Press that Bendjelloul died in Stockholm late Tuesday, but wouldn't specify where his body was found or the cause of death.
She said no crime is suspected in relation to the filmmaker's death.

"Searching for Sugar Man," which tells the story of how American singer Sixto Rodriguez became a superstar in South Africa without knowing about it, won the Oscar for best documentary in 2013. It was the first time a Swedish film had won an Oscar since Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander" in 1984.

The film also won several other prizes, including a British BAFTA for best documentary and the Swedish Guldbagge award.

Bendjelloul came across the story about Rodriguez, who had disappeared from public life in the U.S. but developed an unlikely cult following among white liberals in South Africa, during a trip to Cape Town.

"I had never heard anything close to this in terms of the emotional content and the spectacular way things evolved. My jaw just dropped," Bendjelloul told The Hollywood Reporter after winning the Oscar.
The soft-spoken, unassuming Bendjelloul worked as a reporter for Sweden's public broadcaster SVT before resigning to backpack around the world. He got the idea for "Searching for Sugar Man" — his first feature film — during one of his trips, but it would take him more than four years to complete the film.

Bendjelloul later recalled that when the film was 90 percent finished, after he had been editing it for three years, the main sponsor said the film was lousy and withdrew support.

At this stage he had already used up all his savings and borrowed money from friends, so he stopped working on the movie and took other jobs to make ends meet. In the end, he completed the film by shooting the final parts with his smartphone and making his own animations.

Bendjelloul was born in 1977 to Swedish translator Veronica Schildt Bendjelloul and doctor Hacene Bendjelloul and acted in the Swedish TV series "Ebba and Didrik" as a child during the 1990s. He studied journalism and media production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar in southern Sweden before joining SVT where he worked as a reporter on the culture program "Kobra."

Bendjelloul's death came as a shock to many in the close-knit Swedish film community.

"This terrible news has put us all in a state of shock," Swedish Film Institute spokesman Jan Goransson told the AP.

"Malik Bendjelloul was one of our most exciting film makers, which the Oscar award last year was a clear proof of," Goransson said.

He said Bendjelloul had been working on a new movie before his death but wouldn't give any details.

The film director has previously said he escaped the Hollywood hype around him after the Oscar award to go on a safari and has been working on a film about a man who could communicate with elephants.
Swedish film critic Hynek Pallas, who traveled with Bendjelloul to Hollywood when he received the Oscar, described him as a modest, but very determined man.

"He was an incredibly talented storyteller," Pallas wrote. "He had the strength of a marathon runner; to work on his film for so many years and sometimes without money, then you have a goal."
Bendjelloul is survived by his parents and brother Johar Bendjelloul. Funeral arrangements weren't immediately known.

[MacGuffin]

R.I.P. 'Godfather' Cinematographer Gordon Willis
BY THE DEADLINE TEAM
   
Gordon Willis, ASC, whose lensing on films including Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather films, Woody Allen's Manhattan, Annie Hall, Zelig, Stardust Memories, and The Purple Rose Of Cairo, Klute, All The President's Men, Malice, and The Devil's Own, has died. He was 82.

[Punch]

Maya Angelou April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014

American author and poet Maya Angelou, who is best known for her groundbreaking autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," has died at age 86 in North Carolina, her publisher confirmed on Wednesday.

The prolific African-American writer penned more than 30 books, won numerous awards, and was honored last year by the National Book Awards for her service to the literary community.

"Dr. Angelou has passed in Winston-Salem," said Sally Marvin, of Random House.

No other details were immediately available.

Angelou provided eloquent commentary on race, gender and living life to its fullest in poems and memoirs. Her latest work "Mom & Me & Mom," about her mother and grandmother and what they taught her, was released last year.

[Sleepless]

A few days late to post it here, but Rik Mayall died a few days ago. Heart attack. If you grew up in Britain during the 80s/90s then you know him best for Bottom. He was also in The Young Ones and appeared in Blackadder and other stuff too. Stateside, you might remember him from Drop Dead Fred. He was a true comic icon, and it's only just slowly dawning on me what a huge part his brand of comedy had on me in my formative years. Bottom was one of those forbidden fruit sort of shows which was far too mature for me when it originally aired, but myself and friends found ways to watch it anyway.

Here's a selection of clips from the two sell out Bottom Live tours:

[Garam]

Yeah, he was a hero to everyone in our generation (and the one before) who was into out there comedy. As soon as it happened, about a dozen people on my Facebook were posting eulogies and changing their profile pictures to him, while non-UK people were wondering who he is. His role in The Young Ones is one of my favourite performances in anything ever, it's up there with like...Travis Bickle.

Bottom Live isn't great, if you don't know him, watch The Young Ones, Bottom series 1/2, The Comic Strip Presents: Bad News, Dirty Movie, Mr Jolly Lives Next Door. Classics.

[max from fearless]

Oscar-Nominated Actress Ruby Dee Dies at 91 via Variety

Ruby Dee, best known for her role in 1961's "A Raisin in the Sun" and latterly for her Oscar-nominated turn as Denzel Washington's mother in 2007's "American Gangster," died Wednesday in New York. She was 91.

Dee's Oscar nomination in 2008 for her performance as the feisty mother of a Harlem druglord played by Washington in Ridley Scott's "American Gangster" was particularly impressive because the actress made an impression on the Motion Picture Academy with only 10 minutes of screen time. She won a SAG Award for the same performance.

Dee also won an Emmy in 1991 for her performance in the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movie "Decoration Day."

She and her husband, Ossie Davis, who often performed together, were among the first generation of African-American actors, led by Sidney Poitier, afforded the opportunity for significant, dignified dramatic roles in films, onstage and on television.

When Dee and Davis (who died in 2005) were announced as recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, the center described them as "one of the most revered couples of the American stage, two of the most prolific and fearless artists in American culture. As individuals and as a team they have created profound and lasting work that has touched us all. With courage and tenacity they have thrown open many a door previously shut tight to African American artists and planted the seed for the flowering of America's multicultural humanity."

Dee and Davis were civil rights activists beginning in the early 1950s during the controversy over the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Later they were involved in Martin Luther King's March on Washington.

In 1959 Dee starred alongside Poitier, playing Ruth Younger, wife to his Walter Younger, in the original, landmark Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun," the first play by a black woman to receive a Rialto staging and the first Main Stem play to be directed by a black man, Lloyd Richards. The play, Poitier and Richards were all nominated for Tonys.

Dee, Poitier and others from the cast reproduced their performances for the 1961 film adaptation, which was selected for the National Film Registry in 2005.

Dee made her bigscreen debut with a prominent role in the all-black musical "That Man of Mine" in 1946. She starred opposite boxer Joe Louis, playing himself, in 1949 crime drama "The Fight Never Ends," but she came to prominence with her role in 1950's "The Jackie Robinson Story," with the first African-American in Major League Baseball playing himself and Dee playing his wife. She had an uncredited role in Sidney Poitier's first film, "No Way Out," the same year.

For seven months beginning in September 1961, Dee and Davis starred on Broadway in the racially charged, Davis-penned satire "Purlie Victorious," which attracted much controversy for, among other things, its setting: a modern Confederate plantation.

Dee starred with Davis in the 1963 film "Gone Are the Days!," an adaptation of "Purlie Victorious," and appeared in 1967 film "The Incident."

The actress first made her mark on the smallscreen in a 1963 episode of "The Doctors and the Nurses," drawing her first Emmy nomination. During the 1960s she had recurring roles on "Peyton Place" and daytime soap "Guiding Light" while guesting on other programs.

Dee won an Obie and Drama Desk Award in 1971 for her starring role opposite James Earl Jones in the original Off Broadway production of Athol Fugard's "Boesman and Lena." She won another Drama Desk in 1973 for her work Off Broadway in Alice Childress' "Wedding Band." She played Gertrude in a 1975 Shakespeare in the Park production of "Hamlet" that starred Sam Waterston.

On the bigscreen, Dee appeared in the Davis-directed "Black Girl" in 1972; she starred with Davis in the Davis-penned and -helmed 1976 film "Cool Red," whose tagline was "A Dynamite Story of African Revolution!" Dee also starred with Poitier and Harry Belafonte in Poitier's "Buck and the Preacher."

In 1974 the actress returned to the baseball biopic genre, co-starring with Paul Winfield in telepic "It's Good to Be Alive," about Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella's recovery from a tragic accident. (Indeed, Dee couldn't seem to get enough of baseball: In 1990 she starred in telepic "The Court-Martial of Jackie Robinson," this time as Robinson's mother.)

Dee picked up Emmy noms in 1979 for her role in "Roots: The Next Generations" and in 1988 for her part in the miniseries "Lincoln," based on Gore Vidal's novel. Another highlight of the period was a TV adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" in which Dee starred as Mary Tyrone.

The actress returned to Broadway after a long absence in 1988 with the comedy "Checkmates," starring with Denzel Washington and Winfield.
Dee and Davis were among the stars of Spike Lee's controversial "Do the Right Thing" and "Jungle Fever."

She was also Emmy-nominated for guest roles in 1990 on "China Beach" and in 1993 on "Evening Shade."

In 2001 Dee appeared in two Off Broadway productions, "Ruby's Eyes" and the Davis-penned "A Last Dance for Sybil." She received the Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence at the 2002 edition of the Lucille Lortel Awards, which recognize achievements in Off Broadway theater.

In her mid-80s Dee was still a busy actress, appearing in at least eight films between 2007 and 2013.

In 2001 Dee and Davis shared a Grammy nomination with others for best spoken-word album for "The Complete Shakespeare Sonnets"; they won in the category in 2007 for "With Ossie And Ruby: In This Life Together."

Dee and Davis were awarded the National Medal of the Arts in 1995. At the presentation of their SAG life achievement award in 2001, SAG president William Daniels said: "For more than half a century, they have enriched and transformed American life as brilliant actors, writers, directors, producers and passionate advocates for social justice, human dignity and creative excellence."

Ruby Ann Wallace was born in Cleveland but grew up in Harlem and graduating from Hunter College with degrees in French and Spanish in 1944.

She began her career on the stage, making her 1943 Broadway debut playing a Native in a play called "South Pacific" (not the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical). She was a replacement in the American Negro Theater-produced hit "Anna Lucasta" and toured with the show. Dee appeared in three more plays in the late 1940s that had only brief runs on Broadway, including 1946's "Jeb." She first met Ossie Davis, who was playing the title character in "Jeb," at this time and married him two years later. Off Broadway she appeared in "The World of Sholom Aleichem," stage managed by Davis, in 1953.

The actress was first married to blues singer Frankie Dee Brown in the 1940s.

Dee was married to Davis for 56 years until his death in 2005. She is survived by their three children: daughters Nora and Hasna and son Guy Davis, an actor, blues musician and choreographer.

SAG-AFTRA released the following statement on Thursday: "SAG-AFTRA mourns the loss of SAG Life Achievement Award recipient Ruby Dee, who died yesterday at the age of 91. The multitalented Dee distinguished herself as an actor, writer and activist and received the Life Achievement Award in 2000 with husband Ossie Davis. They were only the second husband-and-wife team to win the award, the other being Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in 1985. Dee was predeceased by Davis in 2005."

SAG-AFTRA president Ken Howard also released a statement: "Ruby Dee was truly one of a kind. She was a woman who believed deeply in fairness, a conviction that motivated her lifelong efforts to advance civil rights. The acting community — and the world — is a poorer place for her loss."

[MacGuffin]

Eli Wallach, 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' Star, Dies at 98

Tony- and Emmy-winning actor Eli Wallach, a major proponent of "the Method" style of acting best known for his starring role in Elia Kazan's film "Baby Doll" and for his role as villain Tuco in iconic spaghetti Western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," died on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. He was 98.

On the bigscreen Wallach had few turns as a leading man, but none was as strong as his first starring role in 1956's "Baby Doll," in which he played a leering cotton gin owner intent on seducing the virgin bride (Carroll Baker) of his business rival (Karl Malden). But he appeared in more than 80 films, offering colorful turns in character roles in movies such as "The Magnificent Seven," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," "Nuts," "Lord Jim," "The Misfits" and "The Two Jakes."

The actor, who appeared in a wide variety of stage, screen and television roles, was often paired with his wife Anne Jackson, particularly onstage. In 1948 he was one of the core of 20 who joined Kazan, Cheryl Crawford and Bobby Lewis in starting the Actors Studio, where he studied with Lee Strasberg. Others included Jackson, David Wayne, Marlon Brando, Patricia Neal and Maureen Stapleton.

Wallach received an Honorary Academy Award at the second annual Governors Awards, presented on Nov. 13, 2010, for "a lifetime's worth of indelible screen characters."

His career began in earnest in the '50s, when he achieved triumphs in Tennessee Williams' "The Rose Tattoo," for which he won a Tony, and the revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara."

Times were lean early in Wallach's acting career until he got a role in "Mister Roberts," with which he stayed for two years until 1951, when Williams cast him opposite Stapleton in "The Rose Tattoo," directed by Kazan. After playing the role for 18 months he went right into Williams' "Camino Real" — for which he turned down the role of Maggio in "From Here to Eternity." Frank Sinatra did it instead and won an Oscar; "Camino Real" closed after 60 performances. But Wallach claimed to have no regrets.

Wallach starred Off Broadway in "The Scarecrow" with Jackson and Neal and in 1954 as Julien in Anouilh's "Mademoiselle Columbe" opposite Julie Harris. (He and Harris later starred in "The Lark" on TV).

Afterwards he went off to London, spending a year in "Teahouse of the August Moon." He then did "Major Barbara," with Charles Laughton and Burgess Meredith, on Broadway in 1956. Other stage roles included "The Chairs" and "The Cold Wind and the Warm," with Stapleton.

For Don Siegel he appeared in magnificent film noir "The Lineup." He played a bad guy, and did the same in "Seven Thieves" and "The Magnificent Seven." In 1960 he joined the cast of John Huston's "The Misfits" with Gable, Monroe, Clift and Thelma Ritter.

Over the next decade he appeared in supporting roles in a wide variety of films, including "How the West Was Won," "The Victors," "Act One," "Lord Jim," "How to Steal a Million," "MacKenna's Gold," "A Lovely Way to Die," "How to Save a Marriage," "The Brain" (in French and English) and Sergio Leone's classic "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly."

Stage work was also satisfying, including Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" with Zero Mostel and Jackson, "Brecht on Brecht," Murray Schisgal's "The Tiger and the Typist" (which he and Jackson made into a film in 1967 called "The Tiger Makes Out") and "Luv." They later did "The Typist" on television.

Also for TV he did Reginald Rose's drama "Dear Friends" on "CBS Playhouse" (drawing an Emmy nomination), Clifford Odets' "Paradise Lost" and "20 Shades of Pink." He played Mr. Freeze on two episodes of "Batman." He won an Emmy for his role in the TV film "Poppies Are Also Flowers."

Through the '70s he did several more spaghetti Westerns, as well as films including "The Angel Levine," "Cinderella Liberty," "The Deep," "Nasty Habits," "Movie, Movie," "Winter Kills" and "Girlfriends."

He also flourished in telepics such as "The Wall," "The Executioner's Song," "The Pirate" and "Seventh Avenue," while achieving a triumph with Jackson in 1973 in Anouilh's "Waltz of the Toreadors."

In the late '70s, Wallach and Jackson toured in "The House of Blue Leaves" and a revival of "The Diary of Anne Frank," with their two daughters.

He began to slow down in the '80s but still turned in some good work in "Tough Guys," "Nuts" and 1990's "The Two Jakes" and "The Godfather: Part III," and on the smallscreen he picked up another Emmy nom for the movie "Something in Common" with Ellen Burstyn.

Well into his 90s Wallach continued to draw supporting roles in prestige features, appearing in "Mystic River" (though uncredited), Lasse Hallstrom's "The Hoax," a segment of "New York, I Love You" as well as Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer" and Oliver Stone's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," both in 2010.

The actor continued to do occasional TV work, guesting, for example, on "Law and Order" in 1992, on Sidney Lumet's "100 Centre Street" in 2001, on "ER" in 2003, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" in 2006 and "Nurse Jackie" in 2009 (drawing two more Emmy noms for these last two perfs); he recurred on "The Education of Max Bixford" in 2002. More frequently he did voiceover work, including for 2006 Oscar-winning animated short "The Moon and the Son."

The Brooklyn-born Wallach was educated at the U. of Texas and City College of New York, where he received his B.A. and M.S. in education. Though he felt the odds were against him — "I was a little guy," he wrote in a New Yorker self-profile — he started studying acting as an avocation. He trained with Sanford Meisner, one of the early advocates of the Stanislavski method.

But his thespic ambitions were cut short by the draft. He entered the Army in 1941 and was a Medical Corps administrator for more than four years, serving in the Pacific and Europe and achieving the rank of captain by the time of his discharge.

One of his first acting jobs out of the Army in 1945 was in an Equity Library Theater production of Tennessee Williams' one-act "This Property Is Condemned." Also in the play was young actress Anne Jackson, whom he married in 1948.

His Broadway debut came at the end of 1945 in the drama "Skydrift." The following year he joined the American Repertory Theater, performing Shakespeare, Shaw and even "Alice in Wonderland," in which he played a duck and the Two of Spades. His stage career took off in the early '50s.

In 2005, the actor released his wittily titled autobiography, "The Good, the Bad and Me: In My Anecdotage."

Wallach and Jackson had three children, Peter David, Roberta and Katherine.

[wilder]

Paul Mazursky

[wilder]

R.I.P. Xixax
via Everyone

Beloved internet message board "Xixax" died quietly in its sleep in the early evening hours of July 2, 2014. Sources say the long-cherished discussion forum was surrounded by loved ones at the time of its death. Xixax member Kal shared the following words of rememberance: "I honestly can't think of any other site that I continue to visit on a regular basis for 11 straight years. And fuck, lots of you have been here the same or longer, and many were boys who became men in the past 11 years" and characterized Xixax as "one of the most interesting places to read about and discuss films, television, and more."

On December 20, 2013, in the thread 'To Newbs, introduce yourself', brief member chimbo stated "I understand it takes balls to survive Xixax", and on July 21, 2009, in the thread 'is Xixax for teenagers', board member SiliasRuby remarked that "[Xixax has] always been for everyone, but if you can balance your immaturity with your maturity when it comes to writing about film people will respect you more around here", an apt summation of the kinds of people many Xixax regulars hoped to be and draw to participate in board discussions.

On July 30, 2007, 234 people visited the site, likely due to the release of the YouTube-posted teaser trailer for There Will Be Blood, a turning point in the way films in general were marketed, and the date marked Xixax's most-visitors-online ever.

Somewhere around 2008 Xixax went on permanent life support, with a few longtime devoted members and other loyal friends staying by its bedside even as most anticipated the curtain coming to a close. These next few years were trying times for Xixax, which resembled a near ghost town for weeks and months on end, a lone post here or there periodically breaking the silence.

In the site's later era, the notorious "Shoutbox" was added, a chatroom type feature which diverted much of the discussion away from the actual board itself, into a no-holds-barred, Wild West type zone, where members could post free-wheeling rants and vulgar diatribes with abandon, comforted by the probable notion that their (frequently drunken) indiscretions would ultimately be wiped clean and fade into digital obscurity. With the addition of the board topic 'Shoutbox Gold', these feelings of safety lessened somewhat, as humorous anecdotes, memorable conversations, or blatant shows of stupidity could be enshrined forever in the minds of all who visited the shoutbox memorial thread.

In late 2013 into the beginning months of 2014, when the board had lapsed into a nearly vegetable-like state, Xixax member Reelist attempted to awaken it from its coma by contacting posters who had since moved on with their lives and closed the youthful chapter where they participated in movie banter with virtual strangers to the neglect of other, possibly more productive aspects of their existence. On July 05, 2009, in the thread 'This place is BIPOLAR', Xixax member Pubrick explained that "a lot of people left after having kids, getting a serious job, or generally moving on to bigger and better things."

Older board members expect a welcome if transient resurrection period to coincide with the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's forthcoming film adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's novel Inherent Vice, but years of watching Xixax's tide swell and recede in patterns following the releases of There Will Be Blood and The Master have granted them the wisdom to know that this surge too will eventually pass.

At the time of this press release a memorial had not yet been scheduled.

[Jeremy Blackman]

I want to upvote that post so badly, but I can't bring myself to do it.

[ono]

Most movies suck these days, television is where it's at, and since it's the off-season, there's not much to talk about.  Us stalwart owls are still here, and we'll who-ot and holler when there's something to make noise about.

[Axolotl]

Most movies suck these days, television is where it's at, and since it's the off-season, there's not much to talk about.

Most movies have always sucked. The percentage of good movies is now is just about the same as it's ever been. Maybe you're not trying to seek out good movies like you used to and are just lazily passing judgement because TV is so much easier to get into? This year, as jenkins has been futilely reminding everyone in his weird prose, has been great for movies. I can name 10 movies that I really really liked that came out this year and i can't even watch any new movies till the dvd comes out.

[jenkins]

the talent and creativity possible for an art can be as alive and as wonderful as ever, but new attractions appear and people simply flock to them instead. that's how it goes. bound by flesh reminded me tonight

from a cultural perspective television will endure now for quite a while. i hope everyone likes it as much as they say. it's not the cultural time to be appreciated as a movie. but that simply has nothing to do with it as an art. it's been a great year for movies

but that's not what killed xixax anyway. it's a combination of the members growing old, and discovering new territories for their personal lives, and the idea of a message board growing old and being replaced by new forms of internet communication. that's how it goes

the message board is still possible. i like the anonymity of it. i like the trail of mystery to anonymity, and it's better suited to a message board i think. although my personal details have been shared i don't mind that others haven't shared their own, because i get to imagine a person in a form i can only imagine. i think that's fun

and i chat movies with people who like movies, which i enjoy. and well i personally enjoy it like a teenager i must admit, because tbh i hope that's how i always enjoy it, that's how i like reading it, and anyway i'm terrible at growing old. people chat tv with people who like tv, which they enjoy

sometimes. sometimes there are things here for people to enjoy. it is rather dying. and i am rather repeating things wilder mentioned in that post of his which was written well and made me emotional

of course, was it such a big deal that it ever lived in the first place? no. nbd. is it such a big deal that it'll vanish one day? nbd. it means what it means while it means it, the same as anything else

it's cool. i'll see around whom i'll see around, i'll miss you when you're gone, and everyone's going to be ok

who wants to movie chat? lemme know