RIP Donald Sutherland

Last Wednsday I was in TIFF at the Dolce far niente dinner ;) when a message shattered me.

I shared Keifer's post on FB, about the death of his father, Donald Sutherland, 

saying ONE OF THE LAST OF THE ONLY ONES (quoting the Danny & Dusty song)

The greatest Canadian actor of all times for sure, Sutherland was 88 now, would've been 89 in less than a month (born July 17, 1935).  Still active as an actor, almost 200 films to his name, and unbelievably he didn't win an Oscar ever. Shameful, but they gave him a Honorary Award in 2018, just like with Peter Fonda and other Greats. I met him briefly at a Dec. 1st Buftea studios Media Pro Party when he shot there An American Haunting in 2005,  he was also in Romania in Cold Mountain, the nightmare of waiters in Poiana Brasov because of his contractual clause of non-smoking around him ;)

one of The Dirty Dozen 

one of the M.A.S.H. (Hawkeye)

John Klute in Klute

1900  (absolutely brilliant part !!!)

Fellini's Casanova -masterpiece and a career best

Don't Look Now 

Homer in The Day of the Locust

Liam Devlin in The Eagle Has Landed

The Eye of the Needle

Ordinary People

my soft spot for Kelly's Heroes

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1979 

X in JFK

a Soviet colonel in Citizen X 

The  Puppets Masters (1994, saw and did promo when on HBO, a sort of Body Snatchers by Robert A. Heinlein)

His last great part was in Mr. Harrigan's Phone (2022), based on a Stephen King's story, on Netflix. Before that I loved him  in 2019's The Burnt Orange Heresy as the reclusive painter Jerome Debney.

Before that Ad Astra as the Kurtz in space figure. He was John Paul Getty in Danny Boyle's Trust miniseries, a much superior fare on the kidnapping of the Man's nephew than Ridley Scott's film.  But more popularity came as President Snow in the Hunger Games series.

LaRoy, Texas (2023)

"It's important to finish things once we start them."

(Dylan Baker as Harry)

LaRoy, Texas is a smart rehash of noir fare (neo-noir), that works as a re-modelling of Coen bros' Blood Simple and also The Man Who Wasn't There.

Similar to recent The Last Stop to Yuma Country, but smarter, bigger, better-plotted. 

It's also a debut feature, from writer-director Shane Atkinson, who won 3 awards at the Deauville Film Festival last year, Special Prize, Jury and Audience Prizes.

TBC 

RIP Anouk Aimée

Anouk Aimée  is no more. She was 92. From Anne Gauthier in Claude Lelouch historical Nouvelle Vague film Un Homme et une Femme (where she was nominated for an Oscar, though it was a Foreign film and it was the year 1966 !), through Lola (1961, which was a subsubject in the latest Nani Moretti film), Model Shop (1969, another Jacques Demy film, in which she was Lola and that is an inspiration for Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and one of the women of Marcello in Fellini's masterpiece metafilm 8 1/2 (1963) , also a bit part in La Dolce Vita (1960). Another great part was in Bertolucci's 1981's La Tragedia di un uomo ridiculo, next to Ugo Toganzzi. Best actress at Cannes in 1980 for Marco Bellochio's Salto nel Vuoto (A Leap in the Dark)..

She was the wife of Albert Finney from 1970 to 1978. 

Anouk partnered up with Trintignant for also the sequel of Lelouch's film, Un Homme et une femme: vingt ans  déjà (1986), but also as Anne Gauthier in her last film, toujours avec Trintignant et Lelouch in 2019 in Les Plus Belles annees d'une vie. 

French arts & culture are in mourning after Francoise Hardy and Anouk Aimée.

Variety obit 

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

1st film directed by Ethan without his brother Joel, Coen that is.

Ethan was credited as a producer but the brothers directed together, that's what they say.

This is co-written and co-produced with his wife, Tricia Cooke. Also editor.

Drive-Away Dolls it's an UFO of sorts, noir spoof, lesbian comedy, pop stuff, mostly an acquired taste, very much a hit and miss. Nevertheless fascinating, cos' the gimmick of the suitcase in the trunk (started with Kiss Me Deadly, through Repo Men into Pulp Fiction) is here copious to say the least.

Margaret Qualley is irresistible as the boyish Jamie, loved her in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and in Poor Things, and I think she's in for a great career-coming up Kinds of Kindness and The Substance, both Cannes 2024 fares.

Cameos galore, from Pedro Pascal to Bill Camp, Matt Damon and even Miley Cyrus ;)

                                       Dedicated to Cynthia "Plaster Caster" (1947-2022)
                                                                     "We Remember" ;)