Indieville : Memoriam

Jeanne-Claude, 1935-2009.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Jeanne-Claude -- Christo's collaborator and partner -- died today in Manhattan at the age of 74. It was fitting, in a way, not only because the artist pair have been residents of the city since 1964, but because their last big completed project was "The Gates," which turned Central Park's walkways into a series of orange vinyl doorways and drapes, portways of color livening up an especially dreary winter. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been shorthanded as the people who "wrap"...(read more)

John Hughes, 1950-2009.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:06:28 GMT

Variety is reporting that John Hughes has passed away at the age of 59. Hughes was the man responsible for writing and directing some of the defining films of the teen genre and, without question, of the '80s: "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," not to mention comedy "Planes, Trains & Automobiles." The last film Hughes directed was 1991's "Curly Sue" -- not what one would describe as a success -...(read more)

Ann Savage, 1921-2008.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:46:43 GMT

Ann Savage, 1940s uber femme fatale, passed away on Christmas day at age 87. Last seen playing "Mother" in Guy Maddin's "My Winnipeg," casting that was halfway between a cinephile in-joke and the perfect measure of Maddin's favorite Freudian themes, Savage was probably best known for her role in Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 "Detour." A cultish B-movie that was shot in six days, "Detour" is burdened with obvious budget constraints, technical mistakes and...(read more)

Rudy Ray Moore, 1927-2008.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:22:14 GMT

The man was Dolemite, not to mention otherwise funny like burning. From Mike White: Moore passed away at age 81 on Sunday October 19, 2008. Via rhymed couplets, free form verse, and dirty versions of the alphabet, Moore entertained audiences for decades. His best-remembered routine, "The Signifying Monkey," continues to echo through the world of popular culture. Without two turn tables, and only a mic, Moore rocked the world as Dolemite. [Photo: "Dolemite," Dimension Pictures...(read more)

David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:34:18 GMT

I read "Infinite Jest" in college. A friend passed it along, told me it was something she knew I'd like. Hefting the 1000-plus pages, I thought that I was duty bound, therefore, to hate it, and started reading right away to prove so -- such is the unfortunate person I was. And still am. I ended up finishing the book in three days, at the expense of class, sleep and any social interaction, devouring it in great gulps of prose, propping it open on the kitchen counter as I poked at some...(read more)

September.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:19:17 GMT

Goodbye, grey market.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:51:45 GMT

Mike White has pulled the plug on SuperHappyFun, the great grey market movie site crouched under the dubious protection of the Berne Act with bootleg offerings of the obscure, the commercially undesirable, the unavailable and the out of print. He eulogizes: In actuality, I loved that the titles on SuperHappyFun were being ousted by legitimate release. My dream is that all of the two thousand films we once carried would be as easy to get as the latest hot release. I want a world where the grey market...(read more)

Don LaFontaine, 1940-2008.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:59:52 GMT

You do know who he is. Don LaFontaine was the voice of the voiceover for over 5,000 commercials, network spots and, of course, movie trailers, promising in tones of comforting, gravelly authority forthcoming drama, laughs, action and tears, almost certainly taking place "In a world..." From CNN: His favorite work was one he did for the 1980 film "The Elephant Man," he said in interviews, but whether the film was Oscar-caliber or a bomb waiting to blow, he handled every assignment...(read more)

Mourning Manny Farber.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:04:38 GMT

More on the passing of critic Manny Farber: J. Hoberman at the Village Voice (alongside a reprint of his 1981 essay "Termite Makes Right"): Farber wasn't like other critics. He didn't proselytize and he didn't create systems. Rather, he articulated his idiosyncratic perception, which is to say: He had a sensibility. Farber was as punchy and hardboiled, at least in his prose, as Sam Fuller (a director he admired) and as masterful a vernacular stylist as S. J. Perelman (who, knowledgeable...(read more)

Termite art.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:38:42 GMT

Manny Farber, critic and artist, passed away last night at the age of 91. From Glenn Kenny at Some Came Running: What I found, and find, most valuable in his criticism is his ability to apprehend the entirety of a film--he got it from every angle. He could appreciate a B war picture in the same sense that the guy on the street could, while fully comprehending its value as a work of modern/contemporary art. I'm away from my study, so I can't grab a copy of Space to quote from it willy-nilly...(read more)

Youssef Chahine, 1926-2008.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:25:09 GMT

After suffering a brain hemorrhage several weeks ago, Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine passed away on Sunday at the age of 82. A.O. Scott at the New York Times: Whether his subject was the domestic struggles of poor and middle-class Cairenes, his own youth in Alexandria, the building of the Aswan Dam or the life of the medieval philosopher Averroes, Mr. Chahine's films reflected his cosmopolitan, humanistic sensibility, as well as his deep interest in Egyptian and Middle Eastern history and...(read more)

Cyd Charisse, 1922-2008.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:55:06 GMT

Cyd Charisse, the impossibly long-limbed actress and dancer (born Tula Ellice Finklea) who starred alongside Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly in classic musicals like "The Band Wagon" and "Singin' in the Rain," passed away today. From the AP: Her height was 5 feet, 6 inches, but in high heels and full-length stockings, she seemed serenely tall, and she moved with extraordinary grace. Her flawless beauty and jet-black hair contributed to an aura of perfection that Astaire described...(read more)