criterionforum.org

John Cope wrote:And the Great Geoffrey Hill yesterday.

What a superb obituary. And a great introduction as I'd certainly be lost wading into his later work by myself.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:Forrest J. Ackerman

I hope it's appropriate to post this here.

Writer, documentary filmmaker and Ackerman friend Paul Davids is making the rounds again with interviews concerning ostensible after-death communication with Ackerman leading to a book (An Atheist in Heaven, 2016), following a 2013 documentary film/DVD (The Life After Death Project - see 8-minute intro here). One informative podcast interview here.

Hector Babenco.

R.I.P. Hector Babenco. What a loss. He was a wonderfully talented and fearless director. His filmography is in a dire need of Arrow/BFI/Criterion level rescue.

Alan Vega, legendary singer of of the band Suicide

A brutal year. His solo records a worth checking out if you don't know him past suicide. Wipeout Beat used to be my workout jam.

Garry Marshall

Bummer, he was great in cameos like Lost in America, Soapdish and A League of Their Own. And heck, I proudly own Pretty Woman. Kinda dig parts of Frankie and Johnny/Flamingo Kid too.

His scene in Lost in America is one of my favorite scenes in any comedy ever.

He recently did an interview for WTF with Marc Maron that was very entertaining, showing Marshall still had the gift for gab til the end. A sad loss.

He also made a fun appearance on the commentary track for the Simpsons episode he guest starred in.

I'm a fan of Pretty Woman too! Something that I always liked was the way Garry Marshall always managed to find a small role for what seemed to be his muse actor, Hector Elizondo, in every one of his films! Usually acting as the voice of conscience slightly on the margins of the drama, as in his concierge role in Pretty Woman.

He was great at playing management types, the best being Lost in America. Very memorable as a CBS exec on Louie.

I've said this before but I never really got why he was so revered in the industry until I heard his commentary track for his Simpsons episode-- man, he was just smart and clever as a whip, even if that rarely translated over to his films (Pretty Woman's fantastic though)

I can see that. (Plus he was reportedly one of the nicest guys in the business, and given his stature and the type of people you'd normally find in the movie business, I'm sure that stood out even more.)

Check out this interview he did for a video commemorating a long-running student show at his alma mater. Starts at 2:34, very short, but he explains how it got him into show business and ends with a wonderful remark.

I was genuinely shocked to see his name at the end of an episode of BoJack Horseman, voicing the kind of hack director he would be accused of being.

Not his finest hour by any means, but I always get a chuckle out of his bizarre casting as Penny Marshall's husband (!) in Hocus Pocus.

I remember enjoying him as the network president on Murphy Brown.

He was who we thought he was.

The best rant ever.

The microphone smack really seals it.