Remembrances from 2008

Before the misty eyes ensue, I hope you all are enjoying the holidays and look forward to the New Year with promise. 2009 has the prospects to be a much better year, in that it would have to toil awfully hard to turn out worse than 2008.

As is customary at this time of year, we look back on the previous twelve months and see where we’ve been, and with sadness remember who we have left behind.  Few people do this better than the people at Turner Classic Movies, who annually cut together a film montage remembering actors and filmmakers who have died during the closing year.  Not to sound ghoulish or crass, but I admit I do look forward to watching their yearly remembrances — not with glee over such notable passings, but because these montage are so artfully, touchingly crafted and they appear only at the end of each year.

The 2008 version of TCM Remembers is no exception to this rule of excellence, though it does differ in visual tone substantially from previous years: the haunting shots of winter streams, barren trees and empty shorelines would be utterly bleak were it not for the soulful refrains of God Only Knows by Joe Henry to lighten one’s heart while watching.  Perhaps TCM has not matched their loving film tribute to music better than this year’s union of image and song.

As always, TCM goes to some lengths to include writers, producers and fellow behind-the-scenes contributors to cinema history, including many actors known best for one part (often in their youth) only never to grace the silver screen again.  Naturally they can’t include everyone who passed this year — even so, this installment runs nearly five minutes, which might be their longest yet — but I do enjoy that those outside the limelight also get paid their respects so richly deserved.

So if you’re a film fan like me, bid a farewell to the likes of Paul Newman and Heath Ledger, Harvey Corman and George Carlin, Suzanne Pleshette and Charlton Heston plus many more, with thanks for their lifetimes of work spent entertaining and inspiring us.   And take a moment to think of those dear to you, some close and some far away. We all leave our legacy behind in the lives we touch every day, and by that we are remembered.