Sydney Pollack dies.

Thanks to him I've watched so many times this beautiful film called Out of Africa. Rest in peace!
A small summary from The Guardian:

Director Sydney Pollack dies at 73.

Pollack always struck me as one of the last, best representatives of the Hollywood studio system - an old-school film-maker.

Pollack significantly plumped for Robert Redford - kicking off a fruitful collaboration that stretched from Jeremiah Johnson to The Way We Were to Three Days of the Condor before culminating in 1986's Oscar-winning Out of Africa. The handsome embodiment of Hollywood glamour, Redford proved the perfect front for a Pollack production.

For all that, one could argue that his most challenging, interesting films were made outside the Redford aegis. The Swimmer was a cold-eyed, compelling study of suburban affluenza and one of the great underrated films of the 60s. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is as a devastating tale of the American Depression. Tootsie was one of the smartest, funniest comedies of the 1980s.

At the same time as his films were turning blandly anonymous (The Firm, Sabrina, The Interpreter), he discovered a vibrant sideline as a character actor (eg. dissembling father figure in last year's Michael Clayton)
Pollack's last film as a director was a heartfelt, personal study of the architect Frank Gehry.

Sydney Pollack was an intelligent, versatile and often brilliant film-maker. Cinema is poorer without him.

Xan Brooks (The Guardian)


Two vids I've found in youtube of Out of Africa: the film trailer and the excellent Flight over Africa scene: