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Oh, my. This Guy Died.
He may not be familiar to you if you aren't fond of mid (20th) century British movies or are a fan of film studio logo sequences, but I have always been a fan of the Gong Man (who represented the J. Arthur Rank Studio), especially when he is combined with the bullseye hitting arrow logo for The Archers (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger). And sadly, he just died of a heart attack.
This little link of logos always excites me in a way that the contemporary chains of slick animated images that get stacked up before credit sequences doesn't quite manage. There is something so human about them. The Gong Man is so clearly a fantastic image that makes you feel you're being heralded into another world.
I recently caught a glimpse of the Gong Man (whose name, Ken Richmond, I now know, thanks to his obituary) because I watched the fresh Criterion Collection DVD release of A Canturbury Tale.
The Powell/Pressburger movies are absolutely wonderful. I love them and I love them for their weirdness. They all have strange tones, mixtures of awkwardness, extraordinary beauty, a real interest in people and a genuine embrace of the supernatural. A dead man falls in love while Heaven longs for Technicolor (A Matter of Life and Death); nuns get driven mad in the Himalayas (Black Narcissus); the Scottish Hebrides serve as matchmakers ("I Know Where I'm Going!"); killer shoes (The Red Shoes).
These are wonderful things to watch during episodes of humid despair, which the summer regularly triggers.
So I'm sad to see Mr. Richmond is no longer with us. He is always a welcome sight around here, and seems to have been a nice guy to boot.
posted by Elise at 8:53 AM
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gef said...
hey, thanks for pointing that out. i missed b/c my free NYT daily delivery just ran out. he's a popular fellow in our house too--think i've watched my "i know where i'm going" dvd at least a dozen times
8/14/2006 4:37 PM
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gef said...