Thursday Movie Picks: Stars who Died in 2016

To spice things up a little (actually, in truth I didn’t realise that it was actors only) I decided to pick films in which someone who died in 2016 had a prominent role in making the film because there’s more to movies than just acting (I hope you don’t mind Brigit!). Make sure to check out - http://wanderingthroughtheshelves.blogspot.co.uk/

It has been a bad year for celebrity deaths, we’ve lost great and important people from the world of acting (Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, Carrie Fisher) music (David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Prince, George Michael), sport (Muhammed Ali, Johan Cruyff, Arnold Palmer), politics (Fidel Castro), literature (Harper Lee).

It’s a while since I’ve seen this one, but I chose it because it features music from an artist who died last year. Three of Leonard Cohen’s songs feature in Mr Mccabe and Mrs Miller these are The Stranger Song, Winter Lady, and Sisters of Mercy. An interesting thing to note about Leonard Cohen is how often films now use his songs in their soundtrack compared to 30 or so years ago.

Strangely enough, Mr Mccabe and Mrs Miller is a double pick because Vilmos Zsigmond not only was the cinematographer for Mr Mccabe and Mrs Miller but he was also the cinematographer for Deliverance. I was reminded of this movie having watched Dazed and Confused a few days ago in which the film makes reference to the ‘squeal like a pig’ scene. Vilmos Zsigmond died on the first day of the year.

Gene Wilder also died last year, there are many great films to chose from – Blazing Saddles, The Producers, Young Frankenstein, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was childhood favourite of mine (along with Small Soldiers, Jurassic Park, Wizard of Oz, Men in Black) where Gene Wilder’s layered performance as Willy Wonka outclasses the camp, crazed genius interpretation of Johnny Depp.