ERMANNO OLMI

6 May

(24 July 1931 - 5 May 2018)

The screenwriter and director Ermanno Olmi, who has died at the age of 86, was one of Italy’s great masters of the screen, a social commentator of immense power. Influenced by his country’s neo-realism movement of the 1940s, he created some of the most memorable and humane films ever made. He often cast non-professional actors and filmed in authentic locations, using long takes to produce his own kind of realism. He made many documentaries until his first major feature Il Posto (1961). Then, alongside more documentaries and television work, came The Engagement, A Man Named John, One Fine Day, Long Live the Lady!, The Legend of the Holy Drinker, The Profession of Arms and several others not always seen in the UK. His biggest success was The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978) which won him the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Olmi, a true artist, received the Honorary Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2008. He made his last film, Vedete, sono uno di voi, in 2017. He was married to Loredano Detto (she was in Il Posto) and they had three children.

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.

ERMANNO OLMI

ANNE V. COATES

MICHAEL ANDERSON