ANNE WIAZEMSKY

6 Oct

(14 May 1947 - 5 October 2017)

The German-born actress, novelist and TV documentarist Anne Wiazemsky, who has died aged 70 from breast cancer, was the granddaughter of the French writer François Mauriac. She came to fame when discovered in 1966 by Robert Bresson for his film Au hazard Balthazar, about an abused donkey. She was subsequently taken up by Jean-Luc Godard for his films La Chinoise, Weekend, Sympathy for the Devil (aka One Plus One) and the portmanteau production Tout va bien, and in 1967 she married Godard. Pasolini cast her in Teorema and Pigsty but she mainly appeared in French films including George Who? about George Sand, Philippe Garrel’s L’enfant secret and She Spent So Many Hours Under the Sun Lamp. Wiazemsky appeared in many television movies and series and her last film appearance was in Foreign City in 1988. However, she went on to co-write Claire Denis’s US Go Home, produced a series of short stories, novels and autobiographies, and directed some TV documentaries.

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.

ANNE WIAZEMSKY

JEAN ROCHEFORT

BENJAMIN WHITROW