ANITA PALLENBERG

14 Jun

(25 January 1944 - 13 June 2017)

The actress and model Anita Pallenberg, who has died aged 73, garnered most of her celebrity through her association with The Rolling Stones, as girlfriend to both Brian Jones and Keith Richards, having three children by the latter. She also worked with Mick Jagger on Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell’s iconic film Performance (1970). Born in Rome to German parents, she was expelled from boarding school and became involved in the art scenes in Rome and New York before becoming a model in Paris. After recovering from drug addiction, she trained as a fashion designer. Her involvement in films began in 1967 in Volker Schlöndorff’s Mord und Totschlag (Degree of Murder), in which she had top-billing. After a brief appearance in Wonderwall, she was in Barbarella, Candy and Dillinger Is Dead. Performance gave everybody concerned a certain notoriety as the film’s release was delayed because of its graphic violence and sexuality. Anita also worked on videos for Madonna, appeared in Absolutely Fabulous on TV, played ‘The Queen’ in Mister Lonely, was ‘Sin’ in Abel Ferrara’s Go Go Tales, and La Copine in Stephen Frears’s Chéri. Her last work was in two pictures by Abel Ferrara, Napoli, Napoli, Napoli and 4:44 Last Day on Earth in 2011.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

ANITA PALLENBERG

JOHN G. AVILDSEN

ADAM WEST