With Bergman and Antonioni Gone, Bloggers Invoke Rule of Threes

Turns out we weren’t the only ones to lamely invoke the Famous Deaths Rule of Threes upon hearing about Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. While we suggested that Jean-Luc Godard watch his back, Gawker asks after the health of Werner Herzog. Meanwhile, the Guardian’s film blogger, Xan Brooks, mentions Godard, while adding Alain Resnais and Eric Rohmer to the mix. Whose sense of tragic coincidence is most on target?

We stand by our call on Godard; he’s of the same generation as Bergman and Antonioni, and for Heaven’s sakes, Herzog just directed a big-budget action movie with Christian Bale! And we think Godard’s work is more crucially relevant than that of Resnais and Rohmer. (That sound you hear is a thousand film students clamoring to set us straight.) But both Gawker and the Guardian easily defeat Deadline Hollywood Daily’s Nikki Finke, who leads her Antonioni post thus:

These things really do come in threes: Tom Snyder, Ingmar Bergman, and now Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, dead late last night at age 94.

You know, many discount the later films of Tom Snyder, but we feel they really epitomized his oeuvre’s worldview nicely.

Whatever, it’s only a matter of time before Bill Simmons writes a post comparing the artistry of Bergman, Antonioni, and Bill Walsh.

And Now He’s Dead [Gawker]
First Ingmar Bergman, now Michelangelo Antonioni [Guardian]
Goodbye Tom, Ingmar, Now Michelangelo [Deadline Hollywood Daily]
Earlier: Michelangelo Antonioni Dies at 94