[Exotica] [obit] Breno Mello, David Foster Wallace

Breno Mello, 76, Star of ‘Orpheus,’ Dies

By DENNIS HEVESI [New York TImes]

Breno Mello, the handsome, sculptured leading man in the classic 1959
Brazilian movie “Black Orpheus,” died on July 14 [2008] in Porto
Alegre, Brazil, his hometown. He was 76.

The death was confirmed on Friday by Priscilla Barroso, a press
officer in the Brazilian Embassy in Washington [DC], who said
Brazilian newspapers reported that he was found alone in his home. His
death was not reported in English-language papers.

Mr. Mello played the title role in what, in Portuguese, is called
“Orfeu Negro,” directed by Marcel Camus and based on the Greek myth of
Orpheus and Eurydice. A trolley-car motorman and gifted guitarist,
amid the joyous frenzy of Rio’s carnival, he becomes enthralled with
the beautiful, doomed Eurydice, played by Marpessa Dawn.

Against a backdrop of working-class Rio, with shanties on the hills,
the lovers sway in a provocative samba among the crowds. But Eurydice
is stalked by a man in a skeleton costume. Eventually, Orfeu finds her
in the morgue. In the end, bearing her body in his arms, he falls to
his death from a cliff. His guitar, standing in for the lyre of
Orpheus, is taken up by one of the street urchins who follow him as a
sort of Greek chorus.

Reviewing the film for The New York Times in 1959, Bosley Crowther
called him “a handsome, virile Orpheus who glistens when covered with
sweat,” but denigrated his performance. “Black Orpheus” became
renowned for its soundtrack by the bossa nova legends Antonio Carlos
Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, with songs like “Manhã de Carnaval” and “A
Felicidade.” It won the Palme d’Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival
and the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for best foreign film in
1960.

Mr. Mello was born in Porto Alegre in 1931. He had played for for
Fluminense and Gremio, , major professional soccer teams in Brazil,
when Mr. Camus spotted him on a beach and asked him star in “Black
Orpheus.”

Married twice with five children, he later played roles in five less
successful films, but returned to soccer because, he said, the
Brazilian film industry was not rich enough to support him. He later
sold advertising handouts in his home city, he told Agence France-
Presse.
============================
>From the Los Angeles Times

Writer David Foster Wallace found dead

Claremont police say the novelist and humorist who wrote 'Infinite
Jest,' hanged himself Friday night. He was 46.

By Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

5:31 PM PDT, September 13, 2008

David Foster Wallace, the novelist, essayist and humorist best known
for his 1996 tome "Infinite Jest," was found dead last night at his
home in Claremont, according to the Claremont Police Department. He
was 46.

Jackie Morales, a records clerk at the Claremont Police Department,
said Wallace's wife called police at 9:30 p.m. Friday saying she had
returned home to find her husband had hanged himself.

Wallace won a cult following for his dark humor and ironic wit, which
was on display in such books as "Girl with Curious Hair" and "Brief
Interviews with Hideous Men." In 1997, he received a MacArthur
"genius" grant.

Born in Ithaca, New York, Wallace was teaching writing at Pomona
College.