George Benlian on movies, books and few other things

Farewell to an Aussie legend - Charles Bud Tingwell

 

Charles Bud Tingwell died last Friday morning in a Melbourne hospital following a two year battle with prostate cancer. He was aged 86 and still had a script for a new project near his bedside.

I met Bud Tingwell twice. The first time was at WEA Film Study Group in the late nineties. He was the guest speaker after a special screening of "Always Another Dawn", a sentimental melodrama of love and war playing an heroic young naval officer. In 1947, Bud Tingwell was only 24 and was at the beginning of a prolific career that was soon going to take him to England where he worked for several studios such as Rank and Hammer. In the 1960's his increased popularity due to his role as Inspector Craddock in the four Miss Marple mysteries made by MGM-British opposite the eccentric Margaret Rutherford placed him in an enviable position to pursue a solid acting career in his return to Australia a decade later and to be part of the revival of Australian cinema and specially in a number of Austalian classic series such as Homicide, The Sullivans and The Flying Doctors.

The second time i met him was during the Sydney Film Festival in year 2000. He was the leading actor of "Innocence"; a beautiful and touching love story directed by Paul Cox. I remember vividly talking to him outside the State Theatre about his role and his impressive career. He was a passionate man who took acting as a meaningful and enriching profession.

He never stopped. He was playing solo few years ago at the Sydney Theatre Company. He was also very active in theatres in Melbourne. I just checked IMDB and found out he played in a tv movie the role of Winston Churchill made in 2008. In the recent years we saw him in "The Castle", "Wog Boy", "The Dish" and in "Jindebayne" - All very popular aussie flicks.

In 2004, he published his memoirs simply called "Bud".

The death of prolific american writer John Updike at the age of 76

The prolific american writer John Updike has died last tuesday at the age of 76. Two times winner of both the prestigious Pulitzer price and the National Book Awards, his passing from lung cancer brings a deep sorrow and a considerable loss to the world of litterature.

Talented and well respected from his debut in the late fifties through to his latest works, Updike has touched various forms of writings. His Rabbit series (5 novels each written with ten years apart) may still be remembered as the apotheosis of his creative work. His collaboration for "The New York Review of books" and many other litterary essays and criticism have made him an astute observer of the American art and culture.

Tremendous amount of words have been written about Updike. It is wise to begin reading some of Martin Amis reviews. I also came across a comprehensive website dedicated to him that encourages discussions of his works. A true representative of american small towns and it's middle class, John Updike genuine contribution to the image of the world's most powerful Nation is a matter of high importance. 

 http://userpages.prexar.com/joyerkes/ 

The last Tycoon of French Cinema, Claude Berri died from a heart attack

The death of cinema personality Claude Berri will definitely end an important chapter of the History of French film industry. 

Claude Berri was born Claude Langman in a Jewish Family in 1934. He began an acting career in the fifties before becoming a film maker at the age of 32 directing Michel Simon in his highly acclaimed first feature "Le vieil homme et l'enfant" (Known in English as The Two of us). It is availble through Criterion and  i was planning to rediscover it in the near future. Berri's first movies were all autobiographical. His third, "Le cinema de papa" remains one of the best movies about father and son relationship wonderfuly played by Yves Robert and Berri. "Sex shop" made in 1972 was a representative comedy of French society of that era where pornography was rapidly becoming a phenomenon. His next four movies also made in the seventies continued to explore social behaviour through relationship between couples, friends and even adult versus teenager.

Berri was considered as the quintessential contemporary social issues observer when in the mid eighties he made a complete change by adapting two stories by french popular writer, Marcel Pagnol. Both "Jean de Florette" and "Manon de Source" made consecutively in 1986 made him renown all over the World and perhaps helped him to undertake ambitious projects not only as director but also as an astute producer who knew how to make profitable and well respected movies. In 1993, he adapted Emile Zola's classic novel "Germinal" and in 1996 he went back to the era of Second World War by making a movie about a French resistant couple, Raymond and Lucy Aubrac. Both movies are my favourites and are highly recommended.

His last four movies were rather a come back as an observer on contemporary issues. His last one, "Ensemble, c'est tout" from a novel by Anna Gavalda was about young people. It's always interesting to watch movies about the youth made by veteran directors. I think their fresh approach on a much younger age group provides a new territory to explore.  In this field, Eric Rohmer is definitely the best representative.

Twenty movies as director in forty two years of career is quiet impressive. However, Berri will also be remembered as the last tycoon of French cinema. He started producing his own films and some of his friends like Maurice Pialat and Roman Polanski. His great sense of choosing successful and ambitious projects made him very rich from the eighties through to his last project "Bienvenu chez les cht'is" released a year ago and gaining the number one position of the most successful french production at the box office. More than fifty films were produced by Berri and only a handful few didn't actualy make money.

Claude Berri was also a serious and passionate art collector. For him, art and commerce were complement one another. In the later part of his life he lived couple tragedies with the suicide of both his wife and then his elder son, Julien who was a paraplegic due to an accident two years before his sad end.

 

           

 

British Playwright Harold Pinter dead at 78 years old

The passing of British Playwright Harold Pinter is not a surprise. He was a cancer patient since 2002. He lost his battle against his sickness on the 24th of December in London.

Pinter remains an important ambassador of intellectual Britain as a world renown playwright and an anti-war activist denouncing the American politic of recent years. In 2005, the year of his Nobel Price attribution, he condemned in a severe declaration many injustices of the current World affairs.

Harold Pinter will be remembered as one of the most influencial dramatist of the twentieth century along other great figures like Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett. He introduced a perturbation in conceiving language as a non communicative tool saying "What we hear is an indication of what we don't hear". He revolted against the grandilonquent British Theatre and played a key role in the redefinition of this Art by exploring a new and more abstract style known at the time as the creation of new plays by "Angry Young Men" which also included Edward Bond and Joe Orton.

The strange and compelling talent of Pinter produced an innovative theatre that half a century later continue to be imposed all over the World. A courageous writer who didn't mind to provoke and to be unpopular among certain elite.

Large number of articles about the work and life of Harold Pinter exist on the internet. For a good referrence of his writings i will recommend www.haroldpinter.org 

You can listen to Pinter's recorded speech for the Nobel price of Litterature at the following link http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html

Sudden death of French actor Guillaume Depardieu

After the passing of the Australian actor Heath Ledger early this year at the age of 28, another sudden death of a gifted young actor has happened yesterday this time in France. Guillaume Depardieu, the son of the French icon Gerard Depardieu has died from a severe bout of pneumonia at the age of 37.

Many celebrities children try to follow their parent career path and only few are successful in their own right. Guillaume was one of them. He started his career in "Tous les matins du monde" by Alain Corneau in 1991 playing the young Marin Marais, a viola da gamba student under the tutorship of the austere Monsieur de Saint Colombe. A world wide success and the beginning of a promising career for Guillaume except his fragile and rebelious life attracted the press headline on many occasions. From troubles with the justice on few instances to his severe injury due to a bike accident that resulted of the amputation of his right leg, Guillaume's destiny was not so common.

A destiny not so common specialy when he is the son of Gerard Depardieu. Recently he published a book about his difficult relationship with his father although in the recent years things seemed to be better between them. A powerful movie called "Aime ton pere" dated from 2002 had as story the kidnapping of a famous writer by his son played by real life father and son, Gerard and Guillaume. A remarkable movie highly recommended.

Despite a tumultuous life, Guillaume was one of the key actor of his generation. In Seventeen years, he played in nearly thirty movies as well as worked for the television and the theatre.