End of Summer musings

I've been extremely lax in my duties here on the 'Oscar Director-y'. It's been nearly six weeks since my last posting, so it's time to get back into the swing of things. There were three deaths of Oscar-nominated directors since my last article. Two of them were among the best known foreign film directors, the third an American whose films delighted audiences in the '50's and '60's.

Ingmar Bergman - 21/7/8

Check my posting from 5/20/07, "Fellini & Bergman - the best of the foreign directors". Bergman died on July 30th, in Sweden. He was 89 years old. His most notable films: Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), The Seventh Seal (1957), The Virgin Spring (1961), Cries and Whispers (1973), Fanny and Alexander (1983).


Michelangelo Antonioni - 2/0/1

Most notable films: L'Avventura (1960), The Red Desert (1964), Blow-Up (1966), Zabriskie Point (1970), The Passenger (1975).

A force in Italian cinema, he directed films for almost 60 years, remaining active until 2004, directing a segment of Eros. Although his films were largely overlooked by Academy Award voters, he received an honarary Oscar in 1995. The only film for which he achieved academy consideration was Blow-Up, for which he was nominated for Best Director, and shared Best Writing - Story & Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, with Tonino Guerra and Edward Bond.

Antonioni died on July 30th, in Rome, the same day as Ingmar Bergman. He was 94 years old.


Melville Shavelson - 11/0/6

Most notable films: Houseboat (1958), The Five Pennies (1959), A New Kind of Love (1963), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), Yours, Mine and Ours (1968).

Primarily known as a top comedy writer, he worked on films featuring Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Phil Silvers, Milton Berle, Groucho Marx, Lucille Ball, Martin & Lewis and Cary Grant. He received a pair of Screenwriting Oscar nominations, for The Seven Little Foys and Houseboat. Here is the list of Shavelson's nominated films, with the number of nominations, and Oscars won:

The Seven Little Foys (1955) 1/-
Houseboat (1958) 2/-
The Five Pennies (1959) 4/-
It Started in Naples (1960) 1/-
The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) 1/-
A New Kind of Love (1963) 2/-

Shavelson died on August 8th, in Studio City, California, of natural causes. He was 90 years old.