| Author |
Message |
mjp
Username: mjp
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - 3:46 pm: | |
I used to know him from the Isle of Wight.
A gang of us, including Mingella, used to travel back and forth on the ferry between Ryde and Portsmouth/South Sea, to school. We were all Catholics and this was where there was a secondary Catholic school: run by the De la Salle Brothers (sp?) - a school where monks were the teachers, which Mingella hated but I thought wasn't too bad. I used to play fut-ball alot there but I don't recall Mingella being interested in sport. |
mjp
Username: mjp
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 - 3:59 pm: | |
Sorry about the mis-spelling: it should read Minghella |
al
Username: al
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 9:46 am: | |
Sorry to hear that. I knew people who knew him back in my film days; he always seemed a very decent person, which was unusual for that world. When a friend (who was a receptionist) was moving on from her job, he called up to tell her how much he'd miss talking to her every day - very classy, when you consider how obnoxiously most of the film folk she had to deal with treated her every day.
And also -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2358011.stm
Space no longer to be colonised by tweedy English gents smoking pipes. Eheu! |
martin
Username: martin
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 1:57 pm: | |
Wonder if they'll put up a black slab in his memory ... |
al
Username: al
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - 2:07 pm: | |
Or just find one... |
mjp
Username: mjp
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, March 22, 2008 - 11:37 am: | |
Thinking about this, I remember as a fourteen year old or thereabouts being presented with some lyrics by my sister's boyfriend; he was a musician called Graham Spencer, and played the piano: he went on to become a composer. I believe these were lyrics written by Minghella. Graham knew that I was interested in poetry and as a clue to how to write words for songs had decided to show me what they were up to, with their group. There was several around at that time; but I am sure these lyrics were Minghellas. It was quite an intense scene which my sister was into. Earthlight and Dancer were among the groups. I remember reading the lyrics to myself with private contempt; I thought they were too literal - straightforward low art. I was into the kind of language that Dylan Thomas used; that was how I wanted to write poetry. This same ex-boyfriend, who became a family friend, several years later I remember gave me Minghella's contact details in London, suggesting that I get in touch. I never did. So it was with rather mixed feelings that decades later I sat down to watch The Talented Mr Ripley in a rather dead cinema in the centre of London - a Hollywood movie by Minghella! |