VALE TONY RAYNS
Tony Rayns, the critic, historian, commentator, festival curator and great friend of Cinema Reborn has died suddenly. He leaves behind a legacy of scholarship that included studies of films by Wong Kar-wai, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Chen Kaige among many. But even more importantly he will be remembered for his lifetime of work supporting, encouraging and promoting East Asian cinema old and new to the wider world.
Cinema Reborn Organising Committee Chair Geoff Gardner was a close friend of Tony’s for just on fifty years since they first met in London in 1976. Geoff writes: “My friend Tony Rayns died a sudden death on Saturday 27 June on his return from Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato. It happened only moments after he got back to his flat in Brixton when he had a fall on the stairs within. There has been a huge outpouring of condolences and sympathy for his family and many people have been in touch with me to share how saddened they are at his passing. He was 78, had been in poor health for quite a long time and the recent trip to Bologna had been marred by the onset of some serious gastric pain. I took the photo above of Tony and former Sydney Film Festival Administrator Ross Barnard on Tuesday 23 June after we shared a (Chinese) dinner in Bologna, almost certainly the last picture of him. As a friend summed up succinctly, Tony was a colossus. I shall dearly miss him, miss our annual conversations at Il Cinema Ritrovato and miss all the wisdom about the cinema and about life in general that he accumulated and very generously imparted over a lifetime. RIP Great Man.”
Among the last pieces that Tony wrote were the program notes for our screenings in May of Yasuzo Masumura’s THE WIFE OF SEISAKU. You can read them here on the Cinema Reborn website.
RESTORING SOLRUN HOAAS’S AYA
The filmmaker and artist Solrun Hoaas was a dear friend to many of the people close to Cinema Reborn. She died in 2009 after a career in which she made a number of fine documentaries and a single feature film, AYA starring Eri Ishida, Nicholas Eadie and Chris Haywood, in 1990.
Producer and distributor Andrew Pike has now launched a campaign to raise funds to restore AYA from the original film negatives.
Solrun was a Melbourne-based filmmaker whose observational and personal documentaries made in Japan still have a wide following in both Japan and Australia. AYA is inspired by one of these documentaries, GREEN TEA AND CHERRY RIPE, in which Solrun documented the varied experiences of Japanese women who married Australian servicemen after WW2 and migrated to set up new homes in Australia. The project will not only restore the film to the highest technical standard but will provide funding to reach a new audience with a moving story of a cross-cultural marriage and a Japanese war bride’s experiences in her new home in Australia. The Restoration Project encompasses the recording of interviews with surviving members of the production team to provide a rich “making of” documentary to support the film’s re-release.
If you would like more information or wish to make a tax deductible donation to this project here is a link to the page on the Australian Cultural Fund website.
MARY STEPHEN AT THE MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Many of the members of the Organising Committee of Cinema Reborn have got to know filmmaker Mary Stephen, usually when they have been visiting Paris where Mary has made her home for over forty years since moving first from Hong Kong and then from Montreal. In that time, as well as making her own films she became and integral part of Eric Rohmer’s production company, editing his films for more than the last twenty years of his career.
Now Mary has an almost blockbuster presence at the forthcoming MIFF when three of her films will be on view – her new award-winning feature documentary PALIMPSEST:THE STORY OF A NAME (2025), a newly restored versions of her 1978 feature SHADES OF SILKplus the short film A VERY EASY DEATH.
Mary recently posted this note (now slightly edited) on Facebook about the screenings. “I am grateful that these films will be shared with an Australian audience in Melbourne, 45 years after my unfortunately-lost film Justocoeur played there in 1981. Thank you once again to MIFF, to Al Cossar and Kate Fitzpatrick. Regretful that I can’t be there physically, but the heart will very much be and with a very special thought for Tony Rayns who just left us and who was so much a part of all this (in the same thought, a heartfelt thank-you also to Pierre Rissient, Frederic Mitterand and Derek Hill, I imagine you all having a great time laughing and arguing and watching over us up there.”
Click on the film titles for session times and bookings.
TOM RYAN HAS STARTED A SUBSTACK BLOG
Long time Melbourne, critic, author, commentator and teacher Tom Ryan has recently started a Substack blog GOING MY WAY. It’s already full of reviews, news and commentary. You can also sample it if you click on this link which takes you to a fine and heartfelt tribute to the late actor Sam Neill.
AND STAY TUNED FOR AN ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT CINEMA REBORN’S DATES FOR 2027 AND SOME FIRST NEWS ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS.
Please forward this email to any of your friends who may be interested in Cinema Reborn’s activities and ask them to subscribe direct or send an email to cinemareborn2025@gmail.com
