Passages

A subforum to discuss film culture and criticism.
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Feego
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2007 7:30 pm
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Re: Passages

#8176 Post by Feego » Thu Mar 26, 2020 4:34 pm


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Close The Door, Raymond
Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 11:33 pm

Re: Passages

#8177 Post by Close The Door, Raymond » Thu Mar 26, 2020 7:31 pm

Cinematographer Alfio Contini was 92
"Zabriskie Point", "The Night Porter", "Il sorpasso", "Beyond the Clouds" and "The Trojan Woman"

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MichaelB
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Re: Passages

#8178 Post by MichaelB » Sun Mar 29, 2020 5:12 am

Krzysztof Penderecki, one of the great avant-garde composers of the 20th century, who wrote original film scores (The Saragossa Manuscript), but whose most indelible mark on cinema is arguably via various concert scores repurposed for The Exorcist, The Shining, Katyń and Shutter Island.

Wilo
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Re: Passages

#8179 Post by Wilo » Sun Mar 29, 2020 1:08 pm

In addition to the films MichaelB mentions above, I think one of the most effective uses of Penderecki's music has to be that episode of Twin Peaks: The Return where Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima kicks in as a mushroom cloud starts to erupt. I was already familiar with the piece when the episode aired but now find it impossible to listen to it without thinking of that scene.

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ianthemovie
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Re: Passages

#8180 Post by ianthemovie » Sun Mar 29, 2020 2:46 pm

Wilo wrote:
Sun Mar 29, 2020 1:08 pm
In addition to the films MichaelB mentions above, I think one of the most effective uses of Penderecki's music has to be that episode of Twin Peaks: The Return where Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima kicks in as a mushroom cloud starts to erupt. I was already familiar with the piece when the episode aired but now find it impossible to listen to it without thinking of that scene.
Yes. I believe Lynch used some of his music in Inland Empire, too. Some of the most terrifying sounds ever created.

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brundlefly
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:55 pm

Re: Passages

#8181 Post by brundlefly » Sun Mar 29, 2020 2:59 pm

Fans of Ken Russell's The Devils may also enjoy Penderecki's opera (NSFW - if anyone's at W, anymore) based on the same source material.

flyonthewall2983
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Re: Passages

#8182 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Mar 29, 2020 8:51 pm


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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
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Re: Passages

#8183 Post by hearthesilence » Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:51 pm

Grammy-winning jazz trumpeter Wallace Roney from COVID-19. He studied under Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie before touring with Tony Williams and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. He was the only trumpet player Miles Davis personally mentored. He had been scheduled to play at Brown University two weeks ago before the event was cancelled due to the pandemic.

He was 59.

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Aunt Peg
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:30 am

Re: Passages

#8184 Post by Aunt Peg » Tue Mar 31, 2020 6:36 pm

Actor Matthew Faber best known for his role as Dawn Weiner's brother in Welcome to the Dollhouse
https://movieweb.com/matthew-faber-dead/


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Dr Amicus
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Re: Passages

#8186 Post by Dr Amicus » Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:03 am

Eddie Large, from Coronavirus. I guess largely unknown outside the UK, but a major fixture on British TV in the 70s and 80s as one half of the comedy duo Little and Large. Certainly, they were a favourite in my house when I was growing up. Unusually for tv comedians of the time they never tried to transfer their act to the cinema.

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Rayon Vert
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Re: Passages

#8187 Post by Rayon Vert » Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:02 am

A pedantic point perhaps, but one I personally feel has merit. Media sources, and members here, say "X died from coronavirus". Actually the precise source of death is often unstated, or it's heart problems or pneumonia or something else brought upon or exacerbated by the virus. The distinction is potentially important just in the sense that it tends to spread more, perhaps unhelpful fear about the virus. If someone has the same health problems and it's the regular flu that does them in, media sources won't be saying "X killed by the flu".

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Passages

#8188 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:11 am

Thanks RV, good point. "Health complications exacerbated by COVID" would be more accurate and less alarming, even if still ominous without concrete info.

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Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
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Re: Passages

#8189 Post by Brian C » Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:23 am

I agree that’s a good point. An extreme example of this was last week here in Illinois, where it was reported that an infant who had “tested positive for coronavirus” died. I thought that phrasing was far too vague to be worth even reporting, but of course it was greeted with a lot of alarm. After all, the one thing we haven’t had to worry much about with this virus has been small children getting seriously ill.

That said, I understand it’s a fine line. Information is almost never perfect, and deaths need to be reported. I don’t really have a solution, but I agree that it’s worth keeping in mind that information is incomplete if not outright misleading at times.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Passages

#8190 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:32 am

I see your point, RV, in that we can say very little with definitive certainty about the effects of a virus we’ve only known existed for a handful months. This works the other way as well, in that mortality rates in Spain and Italy point to many people (perhaps 2-3x official mortality figures) dying at home or under care for non-COVID-19 or unidentified ailments that aren’t included in official death tolls. It’s also true that almost no one actually dies directly from HIV infection, but due to other infections and causes brought on by the collapse of their immune systems, and yet we usually fundamentally attribute their deaths to their HIV status.

In the absence of other evidence, probably safe to note someone’s COVID-19 status when acknowledging their passing with an understanding that there remains uncertainty.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
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Re: Passages

#8191 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:35 am

Dr Amicus wrote:
Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:03 am
Eddie Large, from Coronavirus. I guess largely unknown outside the UK, but a major fixture on British TV in the 70s and 80s as one half of the comedy duo Little and Large. Certainly, they were a favourite in my house when I was growing up. Unusually for tv comedians of the time they never tried to transfer their act to the cinema.
Yes, that was the time when I used to pay attention to Saturday evening light entertainment on the BBC. It was usually Jim'll Fix It (whatever happened to him?) followed by Little and Large and usually Blankety Blank and Hi-de-Hi!

There were a lot of male double acts around in the 1980s, probably in the wake of Morecambe & Wise as attempts were made to try and impossibly recapture some of the magic. I like to think of Little & Large as the mid-point primetime family audience tag team, with the Chuckle Brothers aimed at the kids audience and Hale & Pace as the 'dirty joke late night alternative comedy' pairing!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Thu Apr 02, 2020 2:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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brundlefly
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:55 pm

Re: Passages

#8192 Post by brundlefly » Thu Apr 02, 2020 11:47 am

ZE Records' bone-dry wink-nudge new wave chanteuse Cristina, whose work with Don Was, August Darnell/Kid Creole, and John Cale for her husband's label resulted in stuff like toxic Christmas carols and this deliciously DGAF version of "Is That All There Is?" Possibly of complications related to the latest thing.

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Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
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Re: Passages

#8193 Post by Drucker » Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:29 am


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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
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Re: Passages

#8194 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Apr 03, 2020 11:19 am

I actually didn't know his music that well until this past winter when I got all four albums he recorded for Sussex. All wonderful, especially the live one from Carnegie Hall. I came across an interview he did for Rolling Stone - it sounds like he was very happy and content after more or less retiring at the end of the '80s. Funniest story from the interview: “One Sunday morning I was at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles. These church ladies were sitting in the booth next to mine. They were talking about this Bill Withers song they sang in church that morning. I got up on my elbow, leaned into their booth and said, ‘Ladies, it’s odd you should mention that because I’m Bill Withers.’ This lady said, ‘You ain’t no Bill Withers. You’re too light-skinned to be Bill Withers!’ ”

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Lemmy Caution
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Re: Passages

#8195 Post by Lemmy Caution » Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:39 pm

Bill Withers. Interesting case. Was a working class guy in the military then working on planes. Then decided to join the music biz when he was close to 30. Learned to play guitar, made some demos of his songs, then Boom! instant success. Then he had trouble dealing with success. Was a private perhaps prickly guy and had his own way about him. Married Denise Nicholas of Room 222 fame, and it fell apart quickly due to alcohol, jealousy and violence. Then after a relatively short career, and brief 80's comeback, Withers went back to his life.
Ain't no Sunshine and Lean on Me are just classics of simplicity and power.
If you want to go a little deeper, try his song Harlem.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Passages

#8196 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:55 pm

We used to put on Lovely Day a lot in college, which is a personal favorite due to that nostalgia, though now it always reminds me of that scene in 127 Hours when he fantasizes about all the thirst-quenching soda advertisements in a state of dehydration! The song still gets triggered every time I go on a strenuous hike.

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hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
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Re: Passages

#8197 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:59 pm

Lemmy Caution wrote:
Fri Apr 03, 2020 1:39 pm
Bill Withers. Interesting case. Was a working class guy in the military then working on planes. Then decided to join the music biz when he was close to 30. Learned to play guitar, made some demos of his songs, then Boom! instant success. Then he had trouble dealing with success. Was a private perhaps prickly guy and had his own way about him. Married Denise Nicholas of Room 222 fame, and it fell apart quickly due to alcohol, jealousy and violence. Then after a relatively short career, and brief 80's comeback, Withers went back to his life.
Ain't no Sunshine and Lean on Me are just classics of simplicity and power.
If you want to go a little deeper, try his song Harlem.
I would say the first two studio LP's (Just As I Am and Still Bill) and Live at Carnegie Hall are solid albums. He made one more for Sussex (+'Justments), and I'd say half of it was on par with the previous three and the other half was simply okay. When he jumped to Columbia, his music became less earthy, less distinguished and pretty mushy. It's unclear how much of this was a compromise with the label - Sussex treated him terribly financially speaking, but reportedly Columbia went even further, showing little respect for him as an artist. He still had an occasional hit, and the Columbia years are best sampled on the Greatest Hits compilation from 1981 (he made only one more album after that), but it's less compelling than all four of his Sussex albums.

Robert Christgau's review of Sony's 1997 reissue of the Carnegie Hall album:
Beyond "Use Me," "Lean on Me," and "Ain't No Sunshine," does anyone remember this guy existed? What a shame. Far more than best-ofs obliged to respect the career he maintained after this hypercharged 1972 night, his legacy is right here, a moment of lost possibility. Withers sang for a black nouveau middle class that didn't yet understand how precarious its status was. Warm, raunchy, secular, common, he never strove for Ashford & Simpson-style sophistication, which hardly rendered him immune to the temptations of sudden wealth--cross-class attraction is what gives "Use Me" its kick. He didn't accept that there had to be winners and losers, that fellowship was a luxury the newly successful couldn't afford. Soon sudden wealth took its toll on him while economic clampdown took its toll on his social context. But here he's turned on to be singing to his people--black folks who can afford Carnegie Hall. A

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Lemmy Caution
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Re: Passages

#8198 Post by Lemmy Caution » Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:24 pm

Bill Withers was an interesting storyteller in songs such as Grandma's Hands, Harlem, I Can't Write Left-handed, Who is He (and What is He to You). The last three contain a level of anger that adds some verve to the proceedings. Harlem has a somewhat unique use of strings, while the strings are also interesting in Ain't No Sunshine. He also did a fine cover of I Can See Clearly Now.

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Passages

#8199 Post by FrauBlucher » Fri Apr 03, 2020 4:28 pm

As a kid growing up in the 70's his hits always seemed to be in rotation on AM stations playing from transistor radios that people carried around or sitting on stoops with speakers hanging out a window with the 45 of Lean on Me playing. Wonderful music.

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L.A.
Joined: Thu May 28, 2009 7:33 am
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Re: Passages

#8200 Post by L.A. » Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:52 pm

Thanks to Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz for introducing me to Withers’ music. Their version of Use Me is brilliant.

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