Good News Wes!OscarGuy wrote:Hey, those of you who may have been curious, I've heard from Pamela and she's still kicking. I had mentioned she wasn't bouncing emails for the OFTA and she did confirm she got it and then we got to talking, but I wanted to let everyone know she was still with us.
RIP John Harkness
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OscarGuy
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Hey, those of you who may have been curious, I've heard from Pamela and she's still kicking. I had mentioned she wasn't bouncing emails for the OFTA and she did confirm she got it and then we got to talking, but I wanted to let everyone know she was still with us.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
I have a number of friends who went to Columbia Film School, so I wrote them asking if they were there when John was.
One friend -- who came to Columbia in 1978 -- wrote:
"I remember him very well. He was a bit of an ass, but a harmless one - pretty good natured, very knowledgeable, offered some good comedy relief.
David Cronenberg once commented that one of Harkness's reviews of his films - a positive review, I might add - was "sick." Always got a kick out of that."
Another friend commented:
"I remember he had a lisp. And he clearly had intimacy problems. I saw him at the Toronto Film Festival once, and he didn't remember me, or at least acted as if he didn't. Pity, that."
One friend -- who came to Columbia in 1978 -- wrote:
"I remember him very well. He was a bit of an ass, but a harmless one - pretty good natured, very knowledgeable, offered some good comedy relief.
David Cronenberg once commented that one of Harkness's reviews of his films - a positive review, I might add - was "sick." Always got a kick out of that."
Another friend commented:
"I remember he had a lisp. And he clearly had intimacy problems. I saw him at the Toronto Film Festival once, and he didn't remember me, or at least acted as if he didn't. Pity, that."
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Sonic Youth
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I take it as a matter of pride that in all the years we were on the board, Harkness never once zinged me. I suspect it was because of our mutual dislike of Lars von Trier.
Hope he published his top ten 2007 list. And I hope Bourne Ultimatum is on there. (It seemed like a Harkness film.) And I hope his ghost comes to haunt all of you misguided souls and make you change your ways.
RIP, you persnickety bastard you.
Edited By Sonic Youth on 1198188387
Hope he published his top ten 2007 list. And I hope Bourne Ultimatum is on there. (It seemed like a Harkness film.) And I hope his ghost comes to haunt all of you misguided souls and make you change your ways.
RIP, you persnickety bastard you.
Edited By Sonic Youth on 1198188387
"What the hell?"
Win Butler
Win Butler
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Hustler wrote:Tremendous news. I remember Harkness as a very positive contributor to this board. I used to interact with him many years ago. Does someone know the cause of his death?
Heart attack. Details are in one of the obits below.
It's terrible news. I know so many people who have died way before there time over the last fews months (all from cancer).
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I didn't say I thought they died, I merely inquired if anyone knew what became of them. Weebot had a blog on which he expressed thoughts of suicide while still in his teens. I hope he got help before he acted on them.jack wrote:I think the absent posters mentioned have simply stopped posting. It's a wee bit morbid to think they've passed on.
Manolis was an avid contributer who suddenly fell off the radar unlike other contributers who gradually dsiappear or who post intermittently. If he voted in last year's OFTA awards then he is most likely still well and thriving in Athens.
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FilmFan720
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The last we heard from Pamela she was very sick, so that is why I asked. I agree it is morbid re: the other members.jack wrote:I think the absent posters mentioned have simply stopped posting. It's a wee bit morbid to think they've passed on.
"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."
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I don't know that Weebot's a member of OFTA, but both Pamela-Marie and Manolis are members, so I'll know more in January, but I haven't gotten any rejections from their emails, so I assume they are fine.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
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Here's some more detailed obits. His reviews appeared as recently as last week (The Kite Runner, which, of course, he panned 
)
TORONTO FILM CRITIC FOUND DEAD
by
Sandra Martin
Toronto Globe and Mail
December 18, 2007
John Harkness, the film critic for NOW Magazine since its beginning on Sept. 10, 1981, was found dead in his home in Toronto on Tuesday, according to Michael Hollet, the tabloid's editor and publisher. Mr. Harkness, who was 53 had been suffering from high cholesterol. “He had never missed a deadline in 26 years,” Mr. Hollet said Tuesday fternoon, “so we sent somebody to his house when his copy didn't arrive.” That is when they found his body and called the police.
Born in Montreal in 1954, Mr. Harkness grew up in Halifax and Sarnia. He earned a degree in English literature from Carleton University in Ottawa before doing graduate work in Cinema Studies at Columbia University in New York City, where he studied under critic Andrew Sarris.
“John Harkness was simply the best film critic in Canada over the last 26 years,” said Mr. Hollet in a press release. “He has been an essential element of NOW magazine's success and his unique vision and bravery and art in expressing it inspired all of us at NOW to strive.”
Mr. Harkness also wrote for Sight And Sound, Take One, and the Cinematheque Ontario program and spent several years as a trade reporter for Screen International and Cinema Canada. His book on the Oscars, The Academy Awards Handbook, is currently in its eighth edition.
=====================
From Northern Stars.com
John Harkness Remembered.
by Wyndham Wise
(December 19, 2007 - Toronto, Ontario) -- Now weekly’s long-time influential film critic, John Harkness, passed away on Tuesday, December 18 from an apparent heart attack, The Globe and Mail reported yesterday. He was 53 years old.
Bruce Kirkland, film critic for the Toronto Sun and president of the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA), an organization of which Mr. Harkness was a founding member, said, "John should be remembered as someone who had an extraordinary range of knowledge, not only in film, where he was encyclopedic, but also opera, music, painting, theatre, books, and of course poker. He was invaluable in the meetings of the TFCA, keeping them focused on the matters at hand." Eve Goldin, senior librarian at The Film Reference Library, called him "a curmudgeon's curmudgeon, but a pussy cat at heart." Recently John had become a patron of the festival, and his presence at next year's TIFF will be sorely missed.
Born in Montreal, John Harkness grew up in Halifax and Sarnia, went to Carleton University and later studied under one of the most influential film critics of the 1960s, The Village Voice's own Andrew Sarris, in cinema studies at Columbia University. As well as writing for Now since 1981, John also wrote for publications such as Sight And Sound and Take One. He was a huge supporter of TIFF, The Film Reference Library and Cinematheque Ontario. His book on the Oscars, The Academy Awards Handbook, is in its eighth edition.
John was someone I had known since the early 1980s, and our paths crossed on many occasions. For me, his untimely death is something akin to a death in the family. In the mid-1980s, he wrote for Cinema Canada out of its Toronto office on Portland Street. In 1988, I replaced Cameron Bailey who had replaced John in the position of Toronto reporter for Cinema Canada. I read his reviews in Now religiously because they were simply the best in town. When the sainted Jay Scott was writing criticism for The Globe and Mail during the 1980s, I will always remember him writing in one of his columns that the only really good film critic in town, apart from himself of course, was John. John returned the compliment a few weeks later in Now. For him, his only rival was Scott. John never suffered the doubts of modesty.
When I was editor of Take One, I asked John for his considered opinion on the current state of affairs in the Canadian film culture. His response is reprinted here. Needless to say, it ruffled a few feathers, but that's what John was all about. Bruce Kirkland called him a "truth serum." I would say he was not afraid of speaking truth to power – the overriding characteristic I admired in him. There was one phrase that John wrote in his-one-and-only Take One article that has always stuck with me. In assessing the early films of Patricia Rozema, he describes his reaction to White Room this way: "The idea that there were dozens of little filmmaking students out there, waiting to unleash their version of White Room on the world steals my sleep." When my good friend and colleague Geoff Pevere read that line "steals my sleep," he was noticeably impressed. He told me, it's what all good writers strive for, an easy and elegant way with words to express one's thoughts.
Curmudgeon, tough critic and gambler, John might have been, but he was also a nationalist, a true believer if you will. A few years ago he took time off, a sabbatical from Now, to serve as a consultant for an online gambling organization. His poker skills came in handy at last, and it has been said he made enough from that gig to retire for life, but he choose instead to come back to Now and continue writing film criticism. It's what he did. When he was writing for Cinema Canada, he wrote a lengthy essay on the failures of the tax-shelter films, which I always considered one of his more insightful pieces. In it he argued forcefully that movies, films, whatever you choose to call them, reflected the soul of a nation. And Canada was a county still in search of its soul.
With his writing, John Harkness helped enormously in that search and he will be missed. For information about funeral arrangements, contact Now magazine, [email]brianf@nowtoronto.com.[/email]
)TORONTO FILM CRITIC FOUND DEAD
by
Sandra Martin
Toronto Globe and Mail
December 18, 2007
John Harkness, the film critic for NOW Magazine since its beginning on Sept. 10, 1981, was found dead in his home in Toronto on Tuesday, according to Michael Hollet, the tabloid's editor and publisher. Mr. Harkness, who was 53 had been suffering from high cholesterol. “He had never missed a deadline in 26 years,” Mr. Hollet said Tuesday fternoon, “so we sent somebody to his house when his copy didn't arrive.” That is when they found his body and called the police.
Born in Montreal in 1954, Mr. Harkness grew up in Halifax and Sarnia. He earned a degree in English literature from Carleton University in Ottawa before doing graduate work in Cinema Studies at Columbia University in New York City, where he studied under critic Andrew Sarris.
“John Harkness was simply the best film critic in Canada over the last 26 years,” said Mr. Hollet in a press release. “He has been an essential element of NOW magazine's success and his unique vision and bravery and art in expressing it inspired all of us at NOW to strive.”
Mr. Harkness also wrote for Sight And Sound, Take One, and the Cinematheque Ontario program and spent several years as a trade reporter for Screen International and Cinema Canada. His book on the Oscars, The Academy Awards Handbook, is currently in its eighth edition.
=====================
From Northern Stars.com
John Harkness Remembered.
by Wyndham Wise
(December 19, 2007 - Toronto, Ontario) -- Now weekly’s long-time influential film critic, John Harkness, passed away on Tuesday, December 18 from an apparent heart attack, The Globe and Mail reported yesterday. He was 53 years old.
Bruce Kirkland, film critic for the Toronto Sun and president of the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA), an organization of which Mr. Harkness was a founding member, said, "John should be remembered as someone who had an extraordinary range of knowledge, not only in film, where he was encyclopedic, but also opera, music, painting, theatre, books, and of course poker. He was invaluable in the meetings of the TFCA, keeping them focused on the matters at hand." Eve Goldin, senior librarian at The Film Reference Library, called him "a curmudgeon's curmudgeon, but a pussy cat at heart." Recently John had become a patron of the festival, and his presence at next year's TIFF will be sorely missed.
Born in Montreal, John Harkness grew up in Halifax and Sarnia, went to Carleton University and later studied under one of the most influential film critics of the 1960s, The Village Voice's own Andrew Sarris, in cinema studies at Columbia University. As well as writing for Now since 1981, John also wrote for publications such as Sight And Sound and Take One. He was a huge supporter of TIFF, The Film Reference Library and Cinematheque Ontario. His book on the Oscars, The Academy Awards Handbook, is in its eighth edition.
John was someone I had known since the early 1980s, and our paths crossed on many occasions. For me, his untimely death is something akin to a death in the family. In the mid-1980s, he wrote for Cinema Canada out of its Toronto office on Portland Street. In 1988, I replaced Cameron Bailey who had replaced John in the position of Toronto reporter for Cinema Canada. I read his reviews in Now religiously because they were simply the best in town. When the sainted Jay Scott was writing criticism for The Globe and Mail during the 1980s, I will always remember him writing in one of his columns that the only really good film critic in town, apart from himself of course, was John. John returned the compliment a few weeks later in Now. For him, his only rival was Scott. John never suffered the doubts of modesty.
When I was editor of Take One, I asked John for his considered opinion on the current state of affairs in the Canadian film culture. His response is reprinted here. Needless to say, it ruffled a few feathers, but that's what John was all about. Bruce Kirkland called him a "truth serum." I would say he was not afraid of speaking truth to power – the overriding characteristic I admired in him. There was one phrase that John wrote in his-one-and-only Take One article that has always stuck with me. In assessing the early films of Patricia Rozema, he describes his reaction to White Room this way: "The idea that there were dozens of little filmmaking students out there, waiting to unleash their version of White Room on the world steals my sleep." When my good friend and colleague Geoff Pevere read that line "steals my sleep," he was noticeably impressed. He told me, it's what all good writers strive for, an easy and elegant way with words to express one's thoughts.
Curmudgeon, tough critic and gambler, John might have been, but he was also a nationalist, a true believer if you will. A few years ago he took time off, a sabbatical from Now, to serve as a consultant for an online gambling organization. His poker skills came in handy at last, and it has been said he made enough from that gig to retire for life, but he choose instead to come back to Now and continue writing film criticism. It's what he did. When he was writing for Cinema Canada, he wrote a lengthy essay on the failures of the tax-shelter films, which I always considered one of his more insightful pieces. In it he argued forcefully that movies, films, whatever you choose to call them, reflected the soul of a nation. And Canada was a county still in search of its soul.
With his writing, John Harkness helped enormously in that search and he will be missed. For information about funeral arrangements, contact Now magazine, [email]brianf@nowtoronto.com.[/email]
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell