Robin Wood 1931-2009

[Linda Ehrlich]

Robin Wood's essay on "The Ghost Princess and the Seaweed Gatherer" remains
one of the finest pieces of writing about Mizoguchi. Several years ago at a
SCMS conference (or perhaps it was still SCS at that time), I had the good
fortune to speak to Robin Wood and to thank him for that essay. He told me
that, in terms of Asian cinema, his most treasured memory was his time
talking with Satyajit Ray. (Most of this conversation was in an elevator,
but it still remains a clear impression!)
   I'm saddened to hear of his passing. Thanks for the notice. Linda Ehrlich

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 6:26 PM, Alexander Jacoby <a_p_jacoby at yahoo.co.uk>wrote:

>  The distinguished film critic Robin Wood died on Friday, aged 78. While
> he was not a Japanese specialist, he wrote outstanding articles on Mizoguchi
> and Ozu, regarding the former, in particular, as one of world cinema's
> supreme masters. His essays on these directors are to be found in Personal
> Views (recently reissued) and Sexual Politics and Narrative Film.
> His analyses are subtle and profound, and showed that it is not necessary to
> be a Japanese scholar specifically in order to write intelligently and
> meaningfully on Japanese film.
>
>
>
> While Wood's contribution to the criticism of Japanese film was confined to
> a small number of essays, there can be no doubt as to his stature as a film
> critic as a whole. He was, in my opinion, the greatest writer on cinema in
> the English language. He analysed films with supreme rigour and precision;
> he wrote with matchless grace; and his work moved beyond the cinema to
> pose the question of how one might live with integrity in the face of the
> barbarities and injustices of the modern world. He has been a huge influence
> on me since my teenage years, and although I never met him, I felt his death
> as a personal loss. May he rest in peace.
>
>
>
> ALEX
>
>


-- 
Linda E.
http://lindaehrlich.350.com/
www.lindaehrlich.com
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