Friday, May 14, 2010

Robert Mitchum is Dead



Well deh.

People have been talking about a Norwegian film entitled Robert Mitchum is Dead. The film will premiere on May 15th at the Cannes Film Festival. What is the movie about? I have no idea! What does it have to do with Robert Mitchum? Beats me!


After some research, the only description I could find was this one from Yahoo! Movies:


Franky is an actor suffering from insomnia. Franky is his manager Arsene's friend, spiritual son and source of income. When Arsene steals a car and takes Franky to the Arctic Circle under the pretence that the two are going to meet a famous director shooting an American film there, an adventurous journey ensues across Europe as Franky has problems distinguishing between what's real and what's not. 

As my good friend Jonas can attest, Norwegians are strange! But is it Norwegian? It's filmed by a Norwegian company, in Poland and the dialogue is in French. Really? I feel a headache coming on.

After even more research, I found a whole bunch of clips online. Here is one. Here is another. Here is one more. Can you make sense of it? Is it called "Robert Mitchum is Dead" because that is a truth and the film is trying to show a truth? That's the best I can do because otherwise this goes right over my head.

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Regardless of the movie, Robert Mitchum really is dead. He passed away on July 1st, 1997 from lung cancer and emphysema. He had been sick for some time but it was only the spring of 1997 in which doctors had diagnosed him with lung cancer. Robert Mitchum had been smoking cigarettes for many years, as one can tell from his incessant smoking in films such as Out of the Past (1947). In his last months, his illness caused him to deteriorate so quickly that he became unrecognizable. He died peacefully at his home, his wife Dorothy by his side.

On July 2nd, 1997, Robert Mitchum's death made headlines. His death was eclipsed by Jimmy Stewart who passed away on July 2nd, the day after Mitchum, and the newspaper headlines and TV reports that followed focused even more on the uber-famous Jimmy. Mitchum was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the Pacific ocean. Only his wife, a few family members and one close friend, actress Jane Russell, were present at the quiet ceremony.

God Speed Robert Mitchum.

5 comments:

  1. Oh man, I tried to see this last night but couldn't find the theater in time -- it's playing across the street from the main festival, on a street that's mostly bars and restaurants, so it's kind of tucked away. I'm still trying to find out if it's going to be playing again, because I'd love to catch it while I'm here. No idea what it's about, but the title alone has me so curious!

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. there is a movie called "Robert Mitchum is dead"
    a good rock'n'roll road movie
    i'm a coprod

    check out info on http://www.touscoprod.com/pages/projet/fiche.php?s_wbg_menu=4&s_id=508

    see ya

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  4. I was in Ireland when RM died. The Irish Times treated his passing as slightly less significant than the deaths of James Joyce and Michael Collins. It published a wonderful obit that, sadly, does not appear to be available on-line. But keep an eye out for it.

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  5. Hello,

    i am the producer of the film. It is a french main production coproduced with poland, belgium and Norway.

    The title to say that classic cinema is dying and we should keep fighting to do some movies with our heart and no more by pharmacist.

    you could find extract there :

    http://www.ferris-brockman.com/robertmitchumisdead.html

    and look to the festivals all around the world to see it.

    cheers

    ReplyDelete

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