Deep Purple: Game Over ?

Saw Deep Purple for the seventh time or so on Oct. 1st in Cluj. 

Wrote about it on Sunete Live here.

Deep Purple in Rock Forever Cluj, BT Arena, 1 octombrie 2026

It was the 2nd concert of the tour and I was fearing Ian Gillan is too frail to keep on going and finish the tour that was suppose to went on 'til the end of November, with sold-out shows at Apollo Hammersmith in London. 

And Saturday the inveviable happened, Gillan went to hospital and Leipzig and the next two dates were 'postponed' or 'rescheduled'. And tonight the announcerment broke:

RIP Patrick Stewart

Sir  Patrick Stewart, aka Professor X (Charles Xavier) and Jean-Luc Picard is gone to the Final Frontier at 86...

The Brit shakespearian actor achieved fame via SF series fandom and comicbook fodder (Marvel's X Men) but my fondlier memories of him are from way back, as in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981) and Gurney Halleck in David Lych's Dune (1984). 

Or the villain from  Deran Sarafian's Gunmen (1993), the evil Dr. Jonas in Richard Donner's Conspiracy Theory (1997), captain Ahab in the Moby Dick mini series (1998) and captain Nemo on Russell Mulcahy's Mysterious Island (2005, Hallmark), and another villain in Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room (2015). Or his cameo as King Richard in Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).

And of course as himself in an episode of Ricky Gervais' Extras (2005), where he was funny as hell.

RIP Elke Sommer

 Elke Sommer, another link with Peter Sellers after Peter Medak...

A Shot in the Dark (1954, the 2nd Pink Panther flick), or how my buddy T. calls it, Maria Gambrelli, the maid who killed the chauffeur ;) 

Lisa and the Devil -Mario Bava's Exorcist rip-off.

And Bava's Baron Blood.

Bond girl in the non Bond Matt Helm's Wrecking Crew (1968, next to Sharon Tate, film that was shown in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood!)

RIP Peter Medak

“If it’s in your blood, directing, you never stop. And it doesn’t matter that you’re alone in your mind, dreaming or imagining things, you’re always making a movie.”

Peter Medak,  realisateur extraordinaire (1937-2026)

He would've been probably not mentioned if he didn't flew Budapest in 1956. Arriving in London he started an extraorinary life and career, then moved to Holllywood.

Just The Changeling (1980) would be enough to make him a mastero of cinema. Highly underrated and influential (Spielberg and Scorsese and DelToro and Stephen King are huge fans and learned from it) !!!

But it was 1st a crazy Peter O'Toole one-off The Rulling Class (1972), that made him controversial (and desired to work with).

Also ecclectic: A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, The Krays, Species II, Zorro: The Gay Blade, The Men's Club, etc. 

A whole lotta of Television, videos for Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters...

Last year I saw again one of my faved films of the early '90's, the noir arrogant, cult curio Romeo is Bleeding (1993) with an unbelievable Lena Olin and a suffering Romeo by Gary Oldman. 

Bonus: The infamous Ghost on a Noonday Sun (1974, unfinished!), Peter Sellers' nightmare becoming Medak's maelstorm ! And the doc on it, The Ghost of Peter Sellers, the last film he did, back in 2018, which I saw during the pandemic. 

Medak did it with panache, every film goulash had its own (and his own) flavour. Viszontlátásra...

obit in The Hollywood Reporter