R.I.P. x 3

Two great directors of world cinema died on the same day last month: Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman. Bergman, without question, leaves behind the richer legacy: witness the many lists of 'must see' Bergman films published after his death (like this one). My only contribution to that dialogue is this: any critic who doesn't include Bergman's 1960 black-and-white masterpiece "The Virgin Spring" -- IS A HACK!

Of course, Bergman had his famous "The Silence of God trilogy" (and I've seen them all: Through a Glass Darkly, The Silence, and my favorite of the three, the bleak Winter Light, with Bergman stalwarts Ingrid Thulin and Max von Sydow). But Antonioni's strict, unwavering formalism in his equally-famous "Alienation trilogy"carries a unique fascination for all you hardcore foreignfilmguy(s) out there. (I know you're out there!)

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the last of the trilogy ("L'Eclisse," following the more famous "L'avventura" and "La Notte" -- all starring the lovely Monica Vitti), and I had a revelation: Monica Vitti is the original 'RPT' (that stands for 'Ron Palmer type' for those who don't know me and my weaknesses, and it is shorthand for what I humbly consider to be the ideal woman).

Why Monica Vitti, and not, say, Greta Garbo, Louise Brooks, Anna Karina, or Hedy Lamarr? All are mysterious, exotic, desirable, pale-skinned brunettes. But Monica had something extra: she was totally out-of-reach, not only for this kid from Pampa, Texas, but for every man who entered her orbit. She personified the untouchable female: her existential angst and ennui formed an impenetrable barrier to any human connection that came to dominate the relationships throughout European cinema in the great decade of the Sixties. She was not only beautiful and bored, she was completely and totally unknowable. She couldn't (or wouldn't?) let anyone in. Watch four of the five films she made with Antonioni, and ask yourself after each one: "What was her f**ing problem, anyway?" She remains, like the films she stars in, an inscrutable puzzle, and THAT is what makes her the quintessential RPT.

The third passing I mourn is that of the German actor Ulrich Muhe, star of the 2006 Oscar-winning "The Lives of Others." Like Italian comic actor Massimo Troisi in "Il Postino," this brave and accomplished actor completed the role of a lifetime while facing a life-threatening illness. Godspeed, Mr. Muhe!