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poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2018-04-15 12:03 pm

A Generation Passing Away

Two giants of European cinema have recently died. 

Stephane Audran was magisterial. She had poise, she had authority, she had class- and she starred in some of the great movies of the 60s and 70s- including Chabrol's le Boucher and Bunuel's career-redefining masterpiece The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

Milos Forman made a number of Hollywood classics- including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus- but the smaller, regime-bothering films he made as a young gun in Czechoslovakia may have been even better. I have particularly fond memory of The Fireman's Ball- a satire on the sort of people who like wearing uniform- which is like a Mid-European Dad's Army but with cinematic values.