in memoriam
When Vêra Chytilová sadly passed away in March of last year, cinephiles across the world mourned the loss of a truly passionate and original filmmaker. Chytilová was the dangerous iconoclast of the Czech New Wave. Both the BFI and Second Run DVD decided that the world must know of her work outside of her nihilistic masterpiece Sedmikrasky (Daisies, 1966), and as such the BFI ran a series showing many of her films at their Southbank cinema, and Second Run released two of her films, Pasti, Pasti, Pasticky (Traps, 1998) and Fruit of Paradise (1970), on their excellent DVD line.
The passing of a film icon always hits me hard. Mostly because of the realization that actors are as human as the rest of us; knowing that I’ll never have the chance to meet him in person or see him in another movie. Leonard Nimoy started his performance career at the age of 20, but did not become truly recognizable until 1966, when his portrayal of the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer on Star Trek put him on the map.
This week, the suicide of Robin Williams shook the entire world to its core. Robin Williams, famous for his stand-up comedy and acting in numerous films, touched many people’s lives and hearts. The team of Film Inquiry too, was greatly saddened by the magnificent actor’s death, and we would like to pay our tribute to him by all sharing some of our fondest memories of him and his work, and the impact he had on us.