Obituaries There are only a few figures in life that have been as important to be as film theorist and historian David Bordwell, who left us on the 1st March. I really began taking film serious in the mid-90s, but it wasn't until the mid-00s when I was exposed to his work through my MA course that I really understood how films were structured, how they worked as an art form. Unlike other writers, he and his wife Kristen Thompson had the ability to make even the most esoteric concepts accessible and if you're at all interested in film, I'd point you towards any edition of Film Art (earlier editions are much cheaper and just as valid) and their blog.
On that blog, Kristen writes movingly about his final days. The last thing he watched was a couple of episodes of The West Wing:
"He wanted to die at home rather than spending his last days at a hospice facility, and he did. I was with him. It was brief, and I don’t think he suffered. It happened within a few months of the fiftieth anniversary of when we moved in together in the summer of 1974. He was as wonderful a spouse as he was a scholar and a friend."
The post includes an obituary from the university he worked with quotes from Damien Chazelle and David Koepp. If there's any justice, he'll be included in the Oscar obituary reel.
No comments:
Post a Comment