Dedications: My four late friends Rory, Stan, Bryan, Jeff - shine on you crazy diamonds, they would have blogged too. Then theres Garry from Brisbane, Franco in Milan, Mike now in S.F. / my '60s-'80s gang: Ned & Joseph in Ireland; in England: Frank, Des, Guy, Clive, Joe & Joe, Ian, Ivan, Nick, David, Les, Stewart, the 3 Michaels / Catriona, Sally, Monica, Jean, Ella, Anne, Candie / and now: Daryl in N.Y., Jerry, John, Colin, Martin and Donal.

Friday 28 April 2017

RIP, continued ...

We love Talking Heads here and particularly the film STOP MAKING SENSE  - one of those quirky films from Jonathan Demme (1944-2017), who has died aged 73. Demme's two big hits are of course THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and PHILADELPHIA. Demme began as one of Roger Corman's proteges, and was soon directing those early items like CAGED HEAT, CRAZY MAMA, MELVIN AND HOWARD, SOMETHING WILD, MARRIED TO THE MOB, STOP MAKING SENSE in 1984, 
He clocked up 62 credits, including lots of pop videos, and was working up to the end. 
PHILADELPHIA may seem tame to us now, but was quite important back in 1993, and Hanks is extraordindary here (I never wanted to see FORREST GUMP).
 Demme's film caught the moment perfectly and remains an important keywork in representation of gays in cinema. Great soundtrack too. 
For a "merely good" director (as my pal Martin said) he drew Oscar-winning performances from Hanks, Hopkins, Foster ... 

Leo Baxendale (1930-2017), aged 86.  For the generation who grew up on comics - that's us - our childhoods were completed by THE BEANO, THE DANDY,  THE TOPPER, THE BEEZER, THE EAGLE, etc. (and I liked SCHOOL FRIEND too) ... Baxendale was the cartoonist and publisher, who drew The Bash Street Kids, Minnie The Minx and more. 

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