Another pair of obituaries

Swiss actor Marc Michel died last week at the age of 83. I was going to wait until the weekend to mention his passing, mostly because of what is probably his best-known role for those of us who aren't quite so expert on French-language cinema. Michel played Roland, the gem dealer who is suggested as a suitable match for Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. That movie is on TCM this coming Sunday at 6:00 AM.

The other death is cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who died the other day aged 92. Coutard worked with both Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut on some of the classic films of the French New Wave, starting with Breathless. He also did Contempt and Alphaville with Godard, and Jules et Jim and The Bride Wore Black with Truffaut. Oh, and he also did the cinematography on Costa-Gavras' Z. For some reason I thought Z was on the TCM schedule soon, but I think it was on late last month.