Peter Brunette, author of excellent studies about Michael Haneke (the first complete study on the Austrian theater and opera and film director's work), Wong Kar-wai, Roberto Rossellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, passed away in Taormina, Italy, where he was taking part to the Film Festival. He was 66.
Prof. Brunette was working on a Visconti book.
Prof. Brunette once said:
“People should watch art films for the same reason they should read Virginia Woolf as well as Tom Clancy,” Peter Brunette told the Wake Forest publication, “These are films that have power and stay with you and can teach you something about life. Watch them for the same reason you would go to a museum to look at Vermeer. Don’t get me wrong. I like pop culture too. I watch the TV show ‘24’ like a hawk and I loved ‘The Sopranos.’ But, there is a place for films that challenge preconceptions… for films that explore the meaning of being human in an important way.”