[Janice D. Soderling]

January is a cold month devouring one great artist personage after another.

The film director Ettore Scola, a leading figure in Italian cinema for more than three decades, has died at the age of 84.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016...ter-dies-at-84

Edited in: But the Guardian screwed up here.

The following year he won best director at the Cannes film festival for "The Good, Bad and Ugly."

He won it for "Brutti, sporchi e cattivi", Ugly, Dirty and Bad". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rikqcbg1Fc0

The spaghetti western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" starring Clint Eastwood had the Italian title "Il lbuono, il brutto, il cattivi" and directed by Sergio Leone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PgAKzmWmuk

Big difference.

[Janice D. Soderling]

But this is the one I love most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcQf...-2q9d4x-FR1L_4


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppCItkAcxjc

And this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OnGol57daE

[Janice D. Soderling]

Am I all alone in my love for this artist? Looks like it.

[R. Nemo Hill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlzdCHsaY44

"In "Le Bal" (1983) directed by Ettore Scola, the 50 year history of Europe happens in front of you in one ballroom somewhere in Paris where the same actors play the different characters that live through their dances From 1930s to the 1980s as the time passes by and politics, social behavior, and fashion change with each new epoch... For less than two hours we would go through the wars, peace, racial conflicts, student riots of 1968 while Ettore Scola's camera never leaves the ballroom. Dialogues and relationships are realized through the music and dancing only with no word spoken. Ironically, the film was nominated by the Academy for the Best Foreign Language movie award. It should have been nominated for the best Universal Language award – the language of music…"

[Janice D. Soderling]

Oh that was a wonderful link, a succession of clips. Thank you, Nemo, thank you.

[Alan Rain]

Kurt Masur died last year and it went largely unnoticed. A celebrity dies and it's front page news. Such is populism.