Daniel Schmid, 1941 - 2006.

Swiss filmmaker Daniel Schmid, whose movies competed at the Cannes and Berlin film festivals, has died after a battle with cancer at the age of 64.

The BBC.

He appeared in front of the camera in a number of films, including alongside Dennis Hopper and Bruno Ganz in Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend).

Schmid also directed documentaries, the most notable, Il Bacio di Tosca (Tosca's Kiss), about ageing opera singers who live together in a retirement home for musicians and who remember their lives and careers.

Swissinfo.

At the official site, you can read pieces on Schmid and his work by Amy Taubin, Barbara Scharres, Gary Indiana, Stefan Zweifel and Bernhard Giger.

Via filmz.de, appreciations in German by Hanns-Georg Rodek in Die Welt, Christiane Peitz in Der Tagesspiegel and a brief report in the Frankfurter Rundschau.

And in French, Judith Silberfeld for Têtu and, most interestingly, if you can read French, Pascal Villa's interview for 360° Magazine, Schmid's last, in which he talks about his work with Fassbinder. (Thanks, Doug.)

Posted by dwhudson at August 7, 2006 11:51 AM