Sidney Lumet

A noteable, but undervalued film maker has just died:

Lumet was one of the leading film directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was prolific, directing more than 40 movies, and versatile, dabbling in many different film genres. Lumet, who was born in Philadelphia, often shot his movies in his home town of New York.

Lumet was nominated for Academy Awards four times as a director. He never won, but he did receive an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar in 2005. (1)

If Lumet had been born a few years later, he'd probably have been given greater status than he achieved. He was too youthful and stylistically radical to really fit in with mainstream Hollywood; and by the time Hollywood changed, he was probably a bit too old - and too inclined towards realism - to fit in with the radical young things in the loud and shallow post-Tarantino world. Still, he made 12 Angry men; The Hill; Serpico; Dog Day Afternoon; Network; The Verdict; Running On Empty, and lots more. His last film (Before The Devil Knows Your Dead) came out in 2007.

His films maintained a very consistent focus on outsiders/rebels: The Man In White in 12 Angry Men; Paul Newman's dissipated lawyer in The Verdict; Serpico; Howard beale in Network. You get the drift ... Though you could say about 90% of films have outsiders as their main characters, the 'outsiderness' of Lumet's protagonists seemed to be pivotal to the film, whereas Jean Claude Van Damne is an outsider just so he doesn't have to obey the rules.

Probably his lowest moment came when he was name checked in the tiresome-apart-from-Halle-Berry's-tits thriller, Swordfish, in John Travolta's idiotic opening monologue. Really, the old chap didn't deserve that. Swordfish was an embodiment of everything Lumet wasn't. It was brash, flash, sadistic and empty. While Lumet's work was often cruel, it was because he was trying to portray the real world. He'd never have hung a bus underneath a helicopter, or film people being torn to pieces simply so he could show off fancy film techniques.

1 - "American film director Sidney Lumet dies aged 86," unattributed obituary. Published in the Telegraph, 9th of April, 2011. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/film-obituaries/8440301/American-film-director-Sidney-Lumet-dies-aged-86.html)

Craig Thomas has died

He was the chap who wrote lots of not-too-bad cold war thrillers that mentioned animals in the title, like Firefox, Sea Leopard and Wolfsbane.

He seemed to run out of titular beasts in the mid 90s. His last three books were called A Wild Justice, A Different War and Slipping into Shadow. Surely, he meant, A Wildebeest Justice, A Different Warthog, and ... er ... Slipping into Haddocks?

A Day to Remember

Writehandpalm notes the passing of Roy Ward Baker, director of such classics as The Vampire Lovers and And Now The Screaming Starts. He also made some good films, amongst the lurid titty-tastic Hammer pap, such as Quatermass and the Pit (Demonic bugs from Mars infest the London underground) and a Titanic movie, A Night to Remember. James Cameron paid him a supreme compliment by lifting several scenes and staging directly from Baker's 1958 film for his own effort, though he rather foolishly added in some hogwash about Jack and Rose and a diamond necklace. Baker had the right idea, and produced a straightforward, almost docu-drama account.

He was still directing for TV until the the 90s, having moved backwards and forwards between film and TV throughout his career. In the 60s, he directed episodes of The Avengers and The Saint, and the original Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased).

RIP Edwin Morgan

Having made off with literary critic and scholar Frank Kermode yesterday, the Grim Reaper bagged Scottish poet Edwin Morgan, today:

Morgan, who was born in Glasgow in 1920, was recognised internationally as one of the great poets of the 20th century and his fame grew largest late in life. Winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, in 2004 he was appointed "Scots Makar", in effect Scotland's poet laureate, with his poetry widely taught in Scotland's schools.

He passed away at his care home in Glasgow, after a bout of pneumonia, but he had been battling prostate cancer since 1999. When he was diagnosed, his doctor told him he could live six months, or six years. Famously, he replied: "I will take the six years, thank you".

Morgan lived another decade, and went on to write Gorgon and Beau, a poem about the disease and the battle between healthy and cancerous cells.