Buddy Guy @90 !!! LMA !!!

Buddy Guy is 90 today !!!! Most Legendary bluesman alive and recently with a great part in the film Sinners !!!

his most recent NPR concert: featuring Miles Caton from the film Sinners

                                                     Damn Right I've Got the Blues !!!

The Boys from Brazil (1978)

The Boys from Brazil was first a book by Ira Levin (The Stepford Wives, Rosemary's Baby), published in 1976. Great page-turner thriller, very risque, mixing real characters with preposterous fiction !

1978, ITC-producer Sir Lew Grade makes the movie adaptation.

The great Franklin J. Schaffner directs. And he gets an 11 Mill. $ budget and a Grade (sic) A cast.

Gregory Peck is Joseph Mengele, playing totally against type, his only Villain in his filmography. His take on Mengele is fierce, mean spirited and dead serious. He man is evil, the Doctor is mad. But Peck plays it straight and dresses sharply, in white suits, with a stilleto moustache. It's definitely one of the top performances of his amazing career.

Peck said afterwards, "I felt, Laurence Olivier felt, friends of mine like Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon felt, that I was good in this part. Some critics seem unwilling to accept actors when they break what they think is the mold or the image.”

A frail Laurence Olivier (who just had his kidney stones removed!) is Ezra Liberman, the nazi hunter modelled after Simon Wiesenthal.  Olivier's physicality helps him tremendously fot the part, you can feel his pain and suffering. Both Peck and Olivier deliver really copious accents. Olivier was nominated for an Oscar for best actor, one of the film's three Oscar nods (editing and music too).

James Mason supports as colonel Seibert, as do a bunch of great actors known from war and spy films, 

Walter Gottel (general Gogol in the Moore Bond films), Wolfgang Preiss, Michael Gough, Bruno Ganz, Denholm Elliott, most interesting is young Steve Guttenberg playing a Jewish young journalist who discovers the Praguayan Nazi plot. Lily Palmer, Uta Hagen and Anne Meara have small but important parts and the young boy, Jeremy Black as the uncanny blue-eyed adolescent with multiple incarnations. 

The plot itself it's so far out, it's great. And it's played so serious and grave, also it's very avant garde re Cloning, the Macguffin of the film.

Jerry Goldsmith  delivers another great score for Schaffner, they colllaborated on seven films. This one is based half on an Austrian waltz, half on Martial menacing music.

Cinematography in 1.85.1 by Henri Decae, legendary & over versatile French DOP (Bob le flammbeur, Les 400 coups, Le Clan des siciliens, Le Cercle Rouge, Day for Night, Le Professionel), in one of the few English language films he ever did (together with The Light at the Edge of the World, Bobby Deerfield, Two People, Operation Daybreak,  The Island and Exposed).  

Locations are Brazil, Paraguay, London, Austria (Vienna), Germany, Sweden and the US. The production went to Portugal instead and the principal unit never set foot in the USA. 

The opening is great, mysterious, after the majestic music turns into menacing sounds, and the opening credits are on black, there is no dialogue for the first 16 minutes.

I must've seen this film every decade of my life, 1st time in 1981-82 on Communist Romanian television when I was in the 6th or &th grade, impromptu and incognito, on a Sunday night, presented as "film artistic", on the the QT. We were so impressed the next day in school, the ones who saw it, by a sheer mistake, as the film was totally smuggled that night, one of those -push it in films-mainly when comrade Ceausescu was visiting abroad. Thanks again whoever put that on that night. A few years later, in high school I got upon the book, in French ! Started to clumsily translate it, I think I got done the 1st chapter, then of course gave up. The book might've been transalted in Romanian after 1990, I don't know.

One big find was the ITC DVD I got in the early 2000's, wasn't a great copy but still...And last time I watched it in 2020, in the pandemic, catching up with Schaffner's Lionheart and Sphynx. 

There were many different versions, the film was cut over 20 minutes for TV from the original 2h05 running time and many cuts didn't have the original ending with Jeremy Black in the photo dark room, which adds value to the concept. It also empathies the role of the braclet of animal claws that Mengele brought with him from Brazil, a small detail and metaphor addes to the subtext.

Now they are reamaking the book (and film) into a 5 episodes miniseries for Netflix that will probably stream next year. Peter Morgan is the showrunenr and Jeremy Strong is the nazi hunter. August Diehl plays Mengele but it shall be no longer Mengele, they renamed him, after his exceptional turn of the charcter in thw recent The Dissapaerence of Joseph Mengele, in which the Ira Levin novel and the film are mentioned !

  

4 out of 5 / 8 out of 10 !

Maligned on his opening time, criticised and satirised as the "nazi revival" genre was tiring (The Odessa Filre, Marathon Man, later on The Formula) the film stands tall the test of time, anchored in the two key performances, the clash between two old men, obsessed, a lot of psychology that was brought by Peck and Olivier, happy to work together for one time only, the markings of the a great director, the music and atmosphere. 

****

Best review I found about the making of and the motivations of Scahaffner, Peck taking part in it, the choice of the filming format and locations here.

RIP Sam Neill

New Zeelander hero (but born in Northen Ireland)  Sam Neill has gome away at 78.

Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park series for most, but great in Possession (1981), his 1st major European part, his 1st American important part in 1990's The Hunt for the Red October. That came after his intense performance in  Oz director's Phillip Noyce's excellent triangle thriller, Dead Calm (1989). 

He could've been James Bond but he skipped it...

One of his carrers best: John Trent in John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1994). 

Also great villain for another John Carpenter flick, Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992).

Great villainy also in Event Horizon, The Piano. 

TV best: season 2 of Peaky Blinders.

Also great parts in Oz and NZ films as  Taika Waikiki's Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) and The Hunter (2011). 

 "I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him. Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world."

-Steven Spielberg-

Sam Neill had his own vineyard and wine, Two Paddocks. 

https://www.twopaddocks.com/

His last interview in The Guardian here.

And in the Australian Guardian, a top of his best 20 roles, Top 3 mentioned also here. 

The Rolling Stones - Foreign Tongues (2026)

"Some people seek their fortune on the turn of a card 

Or throwing some bones in a whiskey glass   

'Cause if you wanna seek your fortune, need a lot of luck 

I was standing there when the lightning struck."

(In the Stars)

------------------------------------------------

Oh, What a day ! What a Lovely day :)

Who ever expected (and btw needed. another RS record?) after the last one (Hackney Dimonds, 2023) took 18 years to happen?

and it seems it's not only here, but it's great. Did I say Great ? :)

I love the songs that did not get video promotion /airplay:

Mr. Charm, Some of Us (Keef), Covered in You, and imo the hit of the album, Never Wanna Lose you.

 35 year old producer Andrew Watt (Hackney Diamonds) returned for the RS's 25th studio album. 

14 new and 12 original songs, a grotesque (most would say ugly, but catchy) cover -a composite of the three RSurvivor's faces -Ronnie (79), Keith Richards (82), and Mick Jagger (who will be 83 on July 26th).  and a weird and abstract title, Foreign Tongues !

the band is completed by the regular collaborators, Steve Jordan (69) on the drums -he keeps a great Charlie Watts time, and  most reliable Darryl Jones (64) on bass -Jones played with the Stones since 1996!

The record (total running time 62 mins.)

Rough And Twisted - “All I drank was Muddy Waters”

Originally released on a limited-run vinyl under the alias "The Cockroaches". The band then made the track the opening song—and the lead visualizer video, now all the songs who don't have a video have an official visualiser

 In The Stars  -second video using deepfake -de-aging, directed by Francois Rousselot

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2026/05/in-stars-rolling-stones-sotd.html

originally called Starf**ker, about the Groupie 'culture'. 

Jealous Lover -visualiser shot in Sydney

- third video with Anya Taylor-Joy & Charles Melton. Directors: Chris Barrett & Luke Taylor 

Directors: Chris Barrett & Luke Taylor

Steve Winwood on the piano. He appears and plays keys on the whole record.

Mr Charm (also a pun on mad mogul Mr. Musk)

says Mick: 

 "Life's too short for just making money 

Ain't no fool, ain't nobody's monkey 

Life's too short to waste it living on your own, oh! 

Life's too short, nothing lasts forever 

Can't be bought, help me bring you pleasure 

Life's too short to waste it living on your own, yeah"

Divine Intervention -shot in Buenos Aires

Ringing Hollow  - “Lady Liberty don’t look so good when there’s a tear in her gown,”

Never Wanna Lose You   featuring Robert Smith from The Cure.

Hit Me In The Head  featuring Charlie Watts on drums, his track recorded in 2019. 

You Know I'm No Good -shot in Mumbai  -cover of the Amy Winehouse song. 

Some Of Us  -Keef's song, visualiser shot in Berlin

 "Some of us are on our knees"

Covered In You  featuring Paul McCartney (who also has a marevelous album out, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, also produced by Andrew Watt !!!)

Side Effects 

Back In Your Life -great ballad with an even greater Ronnie Wood guitar solo. 

"I hate that I'm losing a friend

 I tried making you laugh 

I tried making you cry 

Is this how our story will end?"

Beautiful Delilah featuring Robert Smith from The Cure and Chad Smith on drums. 

A Chuck Berry cover.

****

Uncut review here -four stars !

Spin Magazine here 

Euronews here. 

Rolling Stone here.Four stars !

Record Collector -Five stars !

The Guardian-Four Stars !

L.A. Times here.

****

Very cool extensive Mick Jagger interview at Conan O'Brien here.

LMA Mel Brooks @100 !!!

Mel Brooks, Mel the man, aka Mel Funn aka Comicus is 100 years today.

Just saw him recently in the HBO documentary Mel Brooks: The 99th Years old Man. Which was done when he was 99. .) By Judd Apatow. 

Mel is one of the few EGOTs, an acronym for the few who won the big Four: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony

Now, Mel is still working, he's releasing Spaceballs 2 soon...it's called Spaceballs: The New One, ;)

and it shall be released after 40 years after the original, in 2027 !

May the Schwarz be with you, Mel  !!! 

As a tribute we just saw (re-saw) his 1976's Silent Movie, the first Mel Brooks film I ever saw, in cinemas, weirdly called Comedie Mută 1977, as it played in Romania in 1977 !!! 

A Little Romance (1979)

I saw this when it came out in Romania, in 1980, obviously opened here in cinemas with a certain delay. It was called Mica romanta, a fair translation of the original A Little Romance. Why they bought it beacuse it criticises the Capitalistic American family )sort of),same as Kramer Vs. Kramer or Champ, hits in the cinema of that era. Or  and the American tourists in Europe? who knows. It was a treat, and one of the best films to run in cinemas then.

I was Ten so a lot of the film meaninngs eluded me. I loved and identified with the kid, Daniel, doing l'École buissonnière like me, watching films al the time, instead of going to school. Didn't fell in love yet but I loved the character of the old man, played with French aplombe a la Charles Boyer or Maurice Cheavlier by the great Laurence Olivier, whose reputation I knew already, so I respected him tremendously. 

None would have a clue then who Diane Lane would become, though Sir Larry told people she will be the next Grace Kelly !!! It was her 1st film and George Roy Hill discovered her and the other kids, Thelonious Bertrand. Him unfortunately acted in only another film, today he is a hapilly married dentist living in a small French town. 

cut to: 

Saw it again in the 90's and absolutely loved it. Was in my late twenties, enjoyed the meta references of George Roy Hill showing his own films, mangled in dubbing in French (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and Italian (La Stangata aka The Sting). It has plenty of film refernces for a film buff, which was not a la mode back then. 

Bonus films: The Three Days of the Condor (Redford pun again), The Big Sleep, True Grit, Hustle (why?) and the invented copiously titled Spasmes Frenetiques !!! 

Arthur Hill is excellent as the foster dad, and Sally Kellerman tries to be as annoying as it gets as the distracted mom. Plus, a cool cameo by Broderick Crawford and a schlock director named George de Marco (De Palma, De Toth ?), played with sleeze approach by David Dukes- that looks a bit like Bogdanovich meets Friedkin , and the author of the crap movie, Lips / Levres !

Now, as a banale recommendation for a child's friend, a girl of eleven, felt the terrible urge of rewatching this. And of course it was an absolute pleasure, a marvelous gateau, from a moment lost in time, elegant, romantic, funny, smart and cinephilic. 

Composer Georges Delerue received his only Oscar for this film. Great music, a tipically Delerue sound. 

A Little Romance was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay by Allan Burns. His script was based on the novel E=MC2, mon amour by Patrick Cauvin.

A timelss gem. and a predecesor of  Richard Linklater's "Sunrise/Sunset" films.  Brilliance by a very underrated master-director, George Roy Hill. Another time, another space, lost innocence and beauty...

4 1/2 out of 5, 9 out of 10 !!!

LMA Clint @96 ! And he Retires...

 Communique from FB's Film Wire:

but i guess it's TRU.

Clint, The Man with No Name has hung up his director’s chair. 

At 96, the legend has officially retired from directing.  Clint Eastwood’s son Kyle confirmed it: the man who defined the Western, owned the action genre, and delivered Oscar-winning dramas has stepped away after nearly 70 years behind the camera.

From A Fistful of Dollars to Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, and Gran Torino — Clint didn’t just act in movies. He built an era.

Thank you for the squint, the grit, and the unforgettable stories.

The credits may have rolled, but the legacy never will.

Deep Purple-Arrogant Boy (SOTD)

 Great new song from some ol' boyz

Lyrics here 

video here, premiered 2nite.

Produced by Bob Ezrin. Written by Don Airey, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Simon McBride & Ian Paice.

From their upcoming 24th studio album SPLAT !, out on July 3d.

see ya in Cluj on Oct. 1st !!!

https://btarena.info/event/concert-deep-purple/

tickets here

Iron Maiden -Burning Ambition (2026)

 hell yeah, and yes a film about the Maidens

8.05.2026. watch your cinema screens !!!

now the London premiere was on 

See ya Friday at Coresi -Cinema One in Brasov, it runs there Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 19.00

(also it runs next weekend)

https://www.cinemaone.ro/movie/3292/1/253179#/

Up the Irons !!!! 

Update after the screening (as noted on Letterbox):

Gotta say I expected this for a while so my expctations were Aces High. Seeing all the docs about the Irons, it makes for a nice completion, and great to see it in a cinema theater (*although mostly empty :( but it is more or less a promotional tool for the ongoing tour, more than the coda on the story of the Iron Maiden legend. 

3 1/2 -half star beacuse it ws on the big screen tho-

International BO here.

Romanian box office:

Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition

distributor: Ro Image 2000 1 86 2.285 73.232,46 2.285 73.232,46 2.285 73.232,46 lei

16.459,32 USD

2.285 tickets / 86 screens....

LMA Jack Nicholson -Jack is 89 !!!

The one and only Jack Nicholson is Today 89 !!!

my Blog series on him here 

Retired from acting in 2013 though his Last Film was How Do You Know (2010), where he played a supporting role.

Sae him last on the big screen in the special screening of The Shining in IMAX in Porto. Planning for a long time a screening of Chinatown, now it might be the best time ;)

Happy Birthday Jack !!! Stay Healthy !!!

We finally re-saw an obscure slapstick comedy that was infamous at the time of its release, The Fortune (1975), Jack's only film with his buddy, Warren Beatty. 

RIP Mario Adorf

Mario Adorf, the Swiss cult actor that died on April 8th 2026 was 95. His father was an Italian surgeon, his mother a German nurse.

He acted in over 200 films, played grand theatre, wrote bestsellers. La Piovra's Acidduzzu (for the Romanians), spaghetti westerns (Gli Specialisti/The Specialists), giallos  (L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo), polizioteschi (Milano Calibro 9), but also Alfred Matzerath in Die Blechtrommel for the arthouse and posterity. Winner of the Leopard Career Award in 2016.

Cultiest movie: Deadlock (1970)

met him briefly in Cannes in 2013 after the screening of Billy Wilder's Fedora. 

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2013/05/c66-mario.html

RIP Chuck Norris

 ...Missing in Action....

Chuck Norris became legendary through the jokes about him, that he is invincible and imortal. He was Not. But gone now at 86, he was an inspiration to many, especially in the 80's Romania.

A Force of One, a man who knew Good Guys Wore Black and An Eye for an Eye he was a Lone Wolf Mc Quade -the inspiration for the later series Walker, Texas Ranger.

I first saw him in the cinema in Breaker ! Breaker !, translated as Orasul fantoma -Ghost town (1977), which I tremember cleartly they had a print in Black and white. Re-saw that on video later on.  The battle with the broken bottle stayed vividly in my mind. He had no moustache at the time. Then on video fisrt films I saw was The Way of the Dragon, his first part in the 1972 Bruce Lee film (also directed by Lee), where he battles Lee in the Colosseum. The Colosseum would never be the same again. Oh, yes, for a bit, in Double Team where JCVD, a huge Norris and Lee fan, battles Mickey Rourke again in the Rome Arena. 

He was a Karate champion and he became Steve Mc Queen's instructor and McQueen adviced him to go into acting. 

Here's some Chuck Norris jokes:

Chuck Norris didn't die, God called him for backup!

Chuck actually died about 15 years ago. Death was too afraid to tell him

Chuck Norris went to Heaven to Judge God for his sins

RIP to the man who can put out a fire with a gallon of gasoline

The man who can beat the sun in a staring contest

The man whose diary is called the Guinness Book of World Records

RIP Phil Campbell

Phil Campbell was Motorhead's last guitarist, on a series of greats (Larry Wallis, Wurzel, "Fast" Eddie Clarke), survived by only Brian Robertson (70 now).

Official Motorhead announcement:

He was Motörhead's guitarist for 31 years (the longest serving member aside from Lemmy) having joined in 1984. After Lemmy’s passing, he was blessed to form Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons with his sons Todd, Dane and Tyla, which recorded and toured together for years.

Phil was a wonderful guitarist, writer, performer, and musician who had Motörhead in his veins. He always led with his gift of guitar, and carried a great sense of humour, but most of all, Phil led with his heart. You could not be around him without a chuckle or twenty, because quite simply, Phil loved life and lived it with great joy.

There will be plenty of time for us to share stories -tales of Campbell glory- and some damn good jokes together; for now, please send love and positive energy to Gaynor and the boys while affording them time, space, and privacy.

Much love and RIP Phil. The world has just lost an enormous beam of light, and we are devastated.

Saw Phil on all the dates with Motorhead I got to see and with his band, Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons in 2018 at Qunatic club in Bucharest. Last year they opened for Guns 'n Roses on the National Arena in Buch. They played Suceava in 2024 and REF too in 2023.

Phil Cambell was just 64 !!!

Remembering George Harrison

 George Harrison would've been 83 today....Living in the Material World...

When he died George was only 58....He became my hero in highschool with his hit album Cloud Nine (1987). I love most his stuff with The Travelling Willburys...

Now only Jeff Lynne and His Bobness still around here....

RIP Tom Noonan

Tom Noonan, most famously known as  Francis Dollarhyde/ The Toothfairy in Michael Mann's Manhunter, the first Hannibal Lecter (spelled Lektor) film in 1986, is gone at 74. I re saw the film last year...It's the best Lecter / Thomas Harris film for me still. And Noonan is pretty scary. 

Great character actor , he was also iFrankenstein's monster in The Monster Squad, the baddie in Robocop 2. He returned for Michael Mann in Heat. 

In his youth, Noonan was a guitarist and a composer and a theatre actor. He directed 2  indie feature films, a play and some shorts.

Terribly sad about Tom Noonan passing. In casting Manhunter I auditioned about 10-15 actors in New York when Tom walked in the door and said, “I don’t want to talk. I just want to read.” He read and it was magical. We worked closely. I based Dollarhyde less on the novel’s character and more on a convicted killer whom I met and with whom I corresponded who was doing life in Vacaville. I took Tom into that world and he made it his own. It was an automatic to cast Tom in a wheelchair as Kelso in Heat. He did so much more fine work, but it was as the battered child become a killer adult - both alive in the same bottle - that projected the range and deep soul of this so acute and committed artist. Rest in peace, Tom.

(Michael Mann)

RIP Robert Duvall

 ...when in Rome...just landed and in the taxi I hear the news, celelbrissimo attore Robert Duvall, etc..surely I get it. Gone. I mean he was 95, lived a great and long life and his films are immortal.

But why everytime I go somewhere this kind of news get heavier and harder?

Last year was just tough and brutal: Gene Hackman in Barcelona (also at 95, also in February), Brian Wilson when we were at night in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, Michael Madsen when I was to see Iron Maiden in Belfort, Remo Girone in Tramonti, Rob Reiner in Porto...Just when Ozzy left I was in Brasov...

Duvall was one of the Greatest, like Hackman. As as kid I knew him first by name, my father showed me, he was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most versatile actor of the '70's. Opposed to Hackman he was the quintesential Character Actor. Capital A. 

He was in over 100 films and television series.

He got an Academy Award (for the forgotten Tender Mercies-1983), a BAFTA Award, four Golden Globe Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

His film debut was as Boo Radley in the book adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). 

His shot at Movie Mythology came with Consigliere Tom Hagen in The Godfather and more for Coppola, a bit part in The Conversation-uncredited-where I saw him last-last year, as a Gene Hackman homage series of films), lt. Kilgore "love Napalm in the morning" in Apocalypse Now. He refused to reprise his part in The Hodfather III doe to a salary quarrel. 

Loved his parts in Lucas' debut THX 1138, Jesse James in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, the gangster in The Outfit, based on the Donald E. Westlake  book, the German colonel in The Eagle has Landed, the baddie in Sam Peckinpah's Killer Elite, a TV producer in Sidney Lumet's Network, Dr. Watson in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, the cop in True Confessions, another cop in Dennis Hopper's Colors, then later on Tony Scott's Days of Thunder, written by Robert Towne, Joel Schumacher's Falling Down, Kevin Costner's Open Range. Also Sling Blade, Get Low, the part of the Old man in the adpatation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, The Judge in 2014, last bit in 2022 Scott Cooper's Netflix flick The Pale Blue Eye.

He directed five films films, most notably The Apostle in 1997 and in 2002 in Argentina, Assassination Tango. I gotta catch-up with that last one, never saw it.

He lived in his ranch in Virginia, surrounded by his family. Never will be gone, just left this stage and sets...

"Somebody once said that the best life in the world is the life of a second leading man. You travel, you get a per diem, and you’ve probably got a better part anyway. And you don’t have the weight of the entire movie on your shoulders.” 

Robert "Bob" Duvall (1931-2026)

Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer (2026)

This just in, as y-day it was the 45th anniversary of the release of the KILLERS album (2.02.1981) !!!

The life and career of pioneering heavy metal frontman Paul Di'Anno, the powerhouse voice heard on Iron Maiden's early albums, will be celebrated in the forthcoming documentary, Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer, to be released by Cleopatra Entertainment this summer.

Hmm, the doc does not apperar on imdb at all... :(

I met Wes Orshoski (and his co-director Greg Olliver in Cannes 15 years ago !!! when they premiered LEMMY in the market, wanted to bring him to Brasov to Doc and Roll to present his film, which we did (show the film that is..)

In a strikingly raw and intimate film, director Wes Orshoski captures the late singer riding an emotional rollercoaster toward the end of his life. Featuring appearances by James Hetfield (Metallica), Gene Simmons (Kiss) Maiden's Steve Harris and members of Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill and Sepultura, the film chronicles how two Iron Maiden fans encounter Di'Anno at the lowest point of his life and then set out to restore his health and relaunch his career.

Wheelchair-bound since the mid-2010s, Di’Anno’s health nosedived during the Covid-19 pandemic, when those two fans launched a crowdfunding campaign which ultimately led to him relocating to Croatia, where - through the help of those fans and doctors - he made a dramatic turnaround while running out of money, reuniting with his former Maiden bandmates, and falling in love. Eventually he makes a heroic and drama-filled return to the stage. All of this is captured in Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer, which Orshoski began shooting in 2017.  

“For years there wasn’t much to capture,” says Orshoski, whose credits include Lemmy, a study of Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister and The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead. “Paul was waiting for surgeries that doctors in the U.K. would not green-light. He was in an incredibly dark place. But once he got to Croatia, fans and doctors gave him the hope he was desperately searching for. It was beautiful to witness. I wanted to make a film that was unlike any rock doc you've ever seen. And in the end, I think we got there.” 

One of icons of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, London-born Di’Anno helped launch Iron Maiden around the world, appearing on two of the most foundational metal albums ever released: Iron Maiden’s 1980 self-titled debut and the celebrated follow-up, Killers, released in 1981. In one of the most epic sagas in metal history, Di’Anno left Maiden in 1981 and was replaced by Bruce Dickinson, leaving metal fans around the world to debate which line-up and which singer was/is better. It’s a debate that continues to this day, almost 50 years later. 

Orshoski finished work on the film (which was shot in England, Croatia, Brazil and the United States) shortly before Di’Anno’s death at 66 in October 2024. Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer has been screening at European film festivals and will be released worldwide on both streaming services and on Home Entertainment DVD and BLU RAY formats.

My obit on Di'Anno here: or:

https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2024/10/rip-paul-dianno.html

***

Trailer here:

oh, how we should reboot Doc and Roll ! Esp. now when Iron Maiden playes again Bucharest and Sunete is prepping another Special Edition mag, this time Up the Irons !!! ;)

RIP Bob Weir

One of the greats and Only Ones, Bobby / Bob Weir, the legendary guitarist of Grateful Dead and later on Dead & Company, Kingfish, etc, is gone at  78 (on Jan. 10th 2026). 

He survived Jerry Garcia (dead at 53 in 1995!!!) for another 31 years !!!

He was still playing last year.

Obit in Rolling Stone

Dead & Company - 08/03/25, Recorded live at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA

RIP Brigitte Bardot

 Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, aka B.B. , once the most famous French incons, died at age 91. She was one of the most beautiful women on screen, bringin g a certain modern quality to feminity in the 60's. 

She was married four times, most famously to Roger Vadim and Gunther Sachs. Also a singer, involved with Serge Gainsbourg (Bonnie & Clyde).

Films: Vadim's  Et Dieu... créa la femme, Louis Malle's Viva Maria, Henri Clousot's La Vérité, Godard's Le Mépris. Last film in 1973. She became a Grand Animal Activist, and that was her main activity and her legacy. 

Obit in The Guradian here.

And here's the great  Tom Zé, with his song BB (1973). 

RIP Chris Rea

Sad news before Xmas...

Chris Rea is no longer Driving Home for Christmas...

The English blues player and singer was 74. 

Rea recorded 25 studio albums, two of which topped the UK Albums Chart, The Road to Hell in 1989 and its follow-up, Auberge, in 1991.

He did the music for La Passione in 1996, film he wrote and produced about racing cars and Ferrari, Rea being a racing driver himself.

He also had the lead in the pythonesque black comedy Parting Shots (1998, directed by Michael Winner), next to Ben Kingsley, Oliver Reed and John Cleese. The film can been on youtube, here.

He had an Italian father and Irish mother - his family were in the ice cream business. 

Chris Rea had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at age 33, a lot of other health issues folllowing it, but he lived and played, album after album, gig after gig, until a stroke in 2016...

He played Bucharest's Sala Palatului, on February 6th 2010 -my memories and review here.

His last album was a compilation, The Christmas Album, released on October 17, 2025....

Obit on BBC here