• Paul Scofield (1922-2008) - British actor (pictured) who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons and who was nominated again almost thirty years later for his supporting role in Quiz Show. He also co-stars in Frankenheimer's The Train, Branagh's Henry V, Zeffirelli's Hamlet, Hytner's The Crucible and Michael Winner's Scorpio, and he played the title role in Peter Brook's King Lear. He narrated the documentaries London and Robinson in Space and voiced the part of Akira Kurosawa in the documentary Kurosawa. He died of leukemia March 19, in West Sussex, England. (NY Times)
• Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) - Oscar-nominated screenwriter of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Best known as a science fiction author, he wrote the novel-turned-film 2010, and his novels Rendezvous with Rama and Childhood's End are also currently being adapted. See Richard's full post for details of his death.
• Hugo Claus (1929-2008) - Belgian filmmaker, novelist and playwright. He wrote the screenplay for the 1958 Oscar nominee Dorp Aaan De Rivier and his directorial work includes the Berlin Film Festival nominee Vrijdag and an adaptation of his play De Verlossing. He died March 19 in Antwerp, Belgium. (BBC)

Over the weekend I watched the last half of the World War II home front drama Since You Went Away in the background while I did some work. There's a sequence in a train station that is so stunningly dramatic it fills in the narrative gaps -- the black and white photography tells the story -- and it made me stop what I was doing and watch it again.

Cinematographer László Kovács worked at the opposite end of the spectrum. His most memorable work from the late 1960s through the 1970s (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Shampoo, F.I.S.T.) doesn't steal attention from the narrative or make you gasp at its unusual beauty. Instead, Kovács gracefully grappled with reality, using what other photographers would call "mistakes" (lens flares and the like) as a means to integrate the imperfections of life into the varied cinematic visions of the many directors with whom he collaborated. Even when the film as a whole falls short, the art of Kovács is consistent.

The latter part of his career (1980 to 2006) is filled with more populist fare (Ghostbusters, Say Anything..., My Best Friend's Wedding), but Kovács never treated any film as a "cash for hire" proposition, as a 2002 interview with ICG Magazine revealed. He was a consummate professional, always putting the aim of the story ahead of the art of the camera. He passed away on July 21 of this year; Jette Kernion wrote a lovely appreciation of his work.

Kovács will be honored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Hungary in Los Angeles today. Ray Pride at Movie City Indie has all the details. Kovács' friend and fellow cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond is scheduled to speak. Kovács will also be honored with a screening at AFI Fest next month. Torn From the Flag, on which he and Zsigmond served as executive producers, documents Hungary's struggle for national identity.

I haven't picked up an issue of Premiere Magazine in quite some time, but a friend of mine recently recommended I visit the publication's newly refurbished website. So I did. Pretty solid content across the board, I'm happy to opine -- but one particular article caught my eye, tickled my fancy, and squatted in my brain long enough to recommend it here.

Basically, a bunch of the Premiere writers were asked to come up with their picks for Most Overrated Film of All Time -- and while most of the sacred cows slaughtered here are pretty darn obvious ones, the opinions and explanations as to why each film was chosen, well, I thought they were fairly compelling. Frankly, I'm thrilled to see someone call Field of Dreams "just too on the nose," because it absolutely is.

Fully prepared for the onslaught of How Dare YE!! hate mail, the Premiere posse has wisely decided to add an equally pithy rebuttal in defense of each movie. So when someone has the audacity to impugn The Wizard of Oz, we sane people have a defender who'll say Dude, Please. I've placed the 20 titles under the jump, just to help spark discussion, but do not let that stop you from reading through the whole article. It might make you think a little differently about some of those Unquestioned Classics that everyone's afraid to admit they don't really dig. (Yep, 2001: A Space Odyssey is overrated; I said it and I'm proud.)