the good well-liked hits of the late Rob Reiner | EUROtoday
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L’horror. That, upon waking up this Monday morning, to be taught that the filmmaker Rob Reiner, the person of those movies so joyful and sunny that had been Spinal Tap, Princess Bride and even When Harry Met Sallyhas simply died in such horrible circumstances, on the age of 78. Found lifeless on Sunday alongside his spouse, photographer Michele Singer Reiner, of their residence in Brentwood, an upscale neighborhood of Los Angeles, the director and the latter had been, in accordance with preliminary stories from the Los Angeles police (LAPD), stabbed a number of instances.
The authorities formally stay cautious, however a number of American media (together with People And TMZ) report that the investigation is specializing in Nick Reiner, the couple’s 32-year-old son. The younger man, screenwriter, had collaborated together with his father on the movie Being Charlie (2015), a piece impressed by his personal previous struggles with drug habit. These complicated antecedents are right now being scrutinized by investigators to attempt to perceive the origin of the tragedy.
In a world that appears to be sinking a bit extra on daily basis into blind violence, the additional darkness dumped on our necks by this horrible information acts like a hammer blow for moviegoers. Son of legendary director/actor Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner leaves behind a cult filmography. Revealed as an actor within the collection All within the Familyhe’s particularly well-known for having produced timeless classics reminiscent of When Harry Met Sally, Princess Bride, Stand by Me or the far more traumatic (however simply as profitable) Misery.
After The President and Miss Wadein 1995, the inspiration of Rob Reiner had decreased the sail in high quality, however he had not stopped working… till releasing, in 2025, a sequel to his cult “mockumentary” (parody documentary, Editor’s be aware) Spinal Tapa couple of fictional arduous rock band. We additionally loved his good nature and his comedian timing as an actor in Gunshots on Broadway, Live on Ed TV and even The Wolf of Wall Street. A dedicated Hollywood determine, Rob Reiner enchanted our lives as spectators, notably within the Eighties, together with his humanist tales capturing the essence of friendship, love and coming of age, with out ever sinking into sentimentality. His brutal and notably gloomy disappearance resonates surprisingly with the ambient gloom of this yr 2025, whereas marking the tip of an period for American comedy.
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
A documentary filmmaker follows the American tour of Spinal Tap, a British heavy steel band in decline, confronted with issues with amplifiers, controversial album covers and stage units which flip right into a catastrophe. Rob Reiner’s first function movie, This Is Spinal Tap actually invented the mockumentary trendy: a deadly cinematic determine mixing satire and mockumentary. Co-written and largely improvised by Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, the movie is surgically exact in its (affectionate) mockery of everlasting rock’n’roll, with all its excesses.
We not often cringe on the parade of clichés put collectively by Reiner: the pretentious interviews, the petty arguments between members of the group, the pathetic nostalgia for a previous glory… The scene of the amplifier which “turns up to 11” has entered frequent parlance, identical to, among the many Anglo-Saxons, the expression “Spinal Tap moment” to designate a disaster with a comical side. Misunderstood upon its launch (the finances of two.25 million was solely worthwhile after a number of years), the hilarious blast grew to become cult amongst actual arduous rockers themselves, who’ve a way of self-deprecation and laughed heartily in entrance of this mirror of their very own absurdities. One of Martin Scorsese’s favourite comedies, which does not spoil something.
Stand by Me (1986)
Four twelve-year-old boys set off in quest of the physique of a young person who disappeared in Oregon in 1959. What could possibly be nothing greater than a macabre treasure hunt turns into, beneath Reiner’s digital camera, one of the stunning movies on friendship and the tip of childhood ever made. Adapted from a brief story by Stephen King (The Body), Stand by Me captures with transferring accuracy this second after we perceive that rising up additionally means shedding.
The movie was a modest success upon its launch however, once more, it grew to become a basic on VHS and TV reruns, cited as a reference by generations of filmmakers and changing new viewers with every decade. Its soundtrack, carried by the usual “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King, has clearly contributed to its posterity. For the primary time, Rob Reiner let his true private contact shine by way of right here: filming pure emotion with out artifice, with the financial system of means, humanism and accuracy that make nice, humble movies. Upon arrival, an absolute basic of the coming-of-age story.
Princess Bride (1987)
A grandfather reads to his sick grandson the story of Buttercup and Westley, separated by demise (or nearly), pursued by a merciless prince, helped by an enormous, a Spanish swordsman and a felony genius. Chaining twists and turns, Princess Bride is an ironic and tender fairy story, an journey that lightly mocks its personal codes whereas celebrating them. Scripted by William Goldman primarily based on his personal novel, the movie combines humor, romance and motion with miraculous lightness.
Cary Elwes and Robin Wright make an ideal hero couple, nevertheless it’s Mandy Patinkin (as Inigo Montoya searching for revenge for his father) who virtually steals the present in every of her appearances. Once once more, the Reiner recipe, his secret weapon, his little “extra”, consists of discovering the appropriate tone between parody and sincerity. Princess Bride didn’t know the glory in theaters both, however was capable of rapidly get again within the saddle by way of video golf equipment, TV and important intergenerational household phrase of mouth, which signifies that it’s at all times celebrated as a timeless jewel. A transferring ode to the facility of tales.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
What extra can we are saying about this Sistine Chapel of the romantic comedy? On this direct inheritor to all of the codes laid down by Woody Allen in Annie Hall And Manhattantranscended right here by modernity eighties and Reiner’s tenderness for his tandem of buddies quickly to be lovers? Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) and Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) meet in 1977 throughout a automotive journey from Chicago to New York. An infinite debate fills their journey: can a person and a lady be buddies with out intercourse getting concerned?
Response over time and this situation sewn in gold by Nora Ephron, carried by a duo of ultra-complicit actors, punctuated by scenes infinitely extra cult than intercourse, together with in fact that of Sally’s faux orgasm in a dinner New Yorker, going through a very discomfited (and utterly deconstructed!) Harry. Reiner frames Manhattan in autumn with basic class (Woody fashion, regular), whereas creating his personal universe. The movie is that this time a triumph on the field workplace with almost $93 million in income. He will impose a mannequin of up to date rom-com whose combination of self-deprecation and emotion will grow to be a college of Sleepless nights in Seattle has 500 Days collectively, passing, clearly, by way of the collection Friends, Sex & the City and some others.
Misery (1990)
Were you having enjoyable? Tremble now! 180 diploma flip after When Harry Met Sally with this adaptation of Stephen King’s best-seller. The dashing James Caan performs Paul Sheldon, creator of profitable station novels, rescued after a automotive accident in the course of a snowstorm by Annie Wilkes, nurse and absolute fan of his romantic saga. When she discovers that he killed her favourite heroine, she kidnaps him to pressure him to resurrect her.
Reiner, who had already tailored King with Stand by Meproves right here the total extent of his mastery with this suffocating, merciless closed session, loopy pressure from begin to end and which can earn the sensible Kathy Bates the Oscar for finest actress for her interpretation of Anny Wilkes. The movie additionally questions the connection between creator and viewers, between the artist and his obsessive followers. And one other basic (validated by Stephen King)!
males of honor (1992)
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Yet one other extra dramatic register and a terrific well-liked success for Reiner with this navy thriller/trial movie, whose effectiveness is totally primarily based on a prodigious double-barrelled shotgun: the confrontation between the younger rooster Tom Cruise and the icon Jack Nicholson. Two generations of actors on the high of their recreation on this psychological duel orchestrated, on the script facet, by Aaron Sorkin, future creator of the collection West Wing (At the White Housein good French).
The plot: two Marines are accused of the homicide of one in all their comrades on the Guantanamo base. Military lawyer Daniel Kaffee (Cruise) should confront Colonel Nathan Jessep (Nicholson), who’s hiding the reality behind the navy’s code of honor. The ultimate confrontation in court docket, the place Jessep explodes at Kaffee, has grow to be one of the quoted scenes in American cinema. Classic and gripping, males of honor grossed $243 million worldwide: it’s the final nice success of Reiner’s golden interval, the one which closes an distinctive decade.
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