Offscreen Notes
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Peter Falk: 1927-2011
The death of Peter Falk no doubt has touched countless people of different generations and of different ages, such was his unassuming ‘star’ personality. Falk was the archetypical character actor, who could easily slip into a secondary role and make it monumental. My father (born two years after Falk) rarely watched TV shows with any regularity, except for Columbo, which he loved. Watching the show with him I can tell that what attracted him to Falk was the way he would trap people into a false sense of security and sense of superiority by playing his character deceptively ‘dumb.’ The coy way he would fool people into giving away clues and evidence no doubt reminded my Italian father of a particular Italian character trait of the sneaky deceiver, il furbo. My own favorite Falk roles are his many gangster roles and his performances under Cassavetes. His small stature and ethnic look always reminded me of Edward G. Robinson, a great character actor of many gangster roles (who will forget his turn as Little Rico in Little Caesar) in the generation before Falk. And his searingly emotional performance in Woman Under the Influence remains one of my favorite working class performances ever. And he shone as the sympathetic (to angels) human in Wim Wenders’ last great film, Wings of Desire. Hopefully Falk has now joined the angels. (Donato Totaro)
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The 21st Century Superhero
Frequent Offscreen contributor Betty Kaklamanidou has just published a book she has co-edited with Richard J. Gray II entitled The 21st Century Superhero: Essays on Gender, Genre and Globalization in Film. Click through below to read the table of contents.
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Never Lost Premiere
Neverlost was an interesting indie Canadian psychological horror film that played at last year’s (2010) Fantasia festival. The cut that showed at Fantasia ended up being altered from an original ending I had seen in a preview screening, against (I thought) the better interests of the film. I am happy to see that the film has been subsequently cut back to its original ending, and this version, with completed sound, will be playing across Canada on a National junket.
BLACK FAWN FILMS PRESENTS
Neverlost at Cinema Cineplex Odeon Quartier Latin
350 Rue Émery, Montreal, Quebec
Part of the Canada wide Never Lost Tour
THURSDAY JUNE 16th 2011 – 7:00PM – $10.00 -
Fundraiser for Japan
This Sunday, 29 May at Concordia Hall theater
Academy Award winning Animated short Film screening – Fundraising for relief in Japan
With the help of the Concordia University Animation club, an animation student from Japan are holding a screening of four Academy Award nominated and Oscar winning animated short films for only 10$.
The money raised will go to the Red Cross efforts in JapanThe filmes are;
-The man who planted trees (Frédéric Back)
-Atamayama, Mt.Head (Koji Yamamura)
-Tsumiki no Ie, La Maison en Petits Cubes (Kunio Kato)
-The Danish Poet (Torill Kove)Ticket: 10$ (at the door from 12:30pm)
first screening 14:00 to 15:30 (for 4 films)
second screening 17:00 to 18:30 (for 4 films) -
Sidney Lumet: 1924-2011
American luminary Sidney Lumet passed away on April 9th at age 86. Lumet will be remembered not as a great visual stylist (although he showed signs in his 1965 film The Pawnbroker of some expressive touches) but as an actor’s director who coaxed some great performances from some of the biggest and best actors of his generation. In particular Lumet excelled at directing ensemble casts, such as in Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Katherine Hepburn, Jason Robards, Ralph Richardson, Dean Stockwell), Twelve Angry Men (Henry Fonda, Martin Balsam, L.J. Cobb, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden), Network (Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Ned Beatty), and Murder on the Orient Express (Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Martin Balsam, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Richard Widmark, Jacqueline Bisset, Vanessa Redgrave, Rachel Roberts, Anthony Perkins). I will remember him most fondly for getting perhaps the best out of Al Pacino when he was at the very peak of his powers, in Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon.
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Farley Granger: 1925-2011
Actor Farley Granger passed away on March 27, 2011 at the age of 85. Granger will be best remembered for his wonderful performance as the nervous half of the Nietzschean murdering gay couple in Hitchcock’s fictional account of the Leopold and Loeb case. Outside of his mainly television roles Granger’s best roles came in an Italian period in the early 1970s where he made a series of popular genre films (westerns, crime, horror).
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Alejandro Jodorowsky
L’Université de Foulosophie has organised a major event/screening of the Mexican maestro of surreal and cult art, Alejandro Jodorowsky, whose works helped cement and typify the midnight movie. I can vividly remember going to one of the many Montreal repertory theatres in the 1970s to watch Holy Mountain, El Topo or Santa Sangre. Jodorowsky is in Montreal to take part in conferences covering his film and theatre work (Panic theatre) and screenings.
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Elizabeth Taylor 1932-2011
One of the greatest of the Hollywood stars, Elizabeth Taylor, is dead at the age of 79. Taylor had not made a theatrical feature since 1980 (The Mirror Cracked) but managed to keep herself in the limelight with her ongoing support for various charities, plus her friendship with Michael Jackson. A child star since the 1940s, Taylor worked hard through her career to develop into more than just a stunning face, but an impressive actress and on-screen presence. Her best work can be found in the comedy Father of the Bride, the drama A Place in the Sun, Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Suddenly Last Summer and Ash Wednesday.
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Michael GoughL 1917-2011
Hammer legend Michael Gough has died at the age of 94. Although most people will remember him for his quaint turn as Batman’s butler in Batman, older fans will most likely remember Gough for his sterling work in Hammer horror films, most notably in Fisher’s Dracula, but also other horror pics Konga, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, Skull, Horrors of the Black Museum, Berserk, Curse of the Crimson Altar, and (well, they can’t all be great) Trog. Never a leading man, Gough was the ideal understudy, quiet authority figure, or dependable ally.
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