In herinnering: Tony Rayns (1946–2026)
De Britse schrijver, festivalprogrammeur en scenarioschrijver Tony Rayns is eerder deze week op 77-jarige leeftijd overleden. Als expert op het gebied van de Oost-Aziatische cinema was hij een bijzonder invloedrijke stem binnen de filmcultuur, en bracht hij het werk van filmmakers uit Oost- en Zuidoost-Azië onder de aandacht van een westers publiek. Rayns werkte jarenlang samen met IFFR en zijn passie voor de cinema uit de regio heeft een blijvende stempel gedrukt op ons festival.
[de onderstaande tekst is alleen in het Engels beschikbaar]
Tony Rayns was a true character, and as such a perfect fit for IFFR. For decades, he worked with the festival, discovering treasures from all over East and Southeast Asia, launching the international careers of Miike Takashi, Mochizuki Rokurō and Ishii Yūya (to mention but some of his Japanese champions), and deepening Europe’s understanding of subcultures, like the world of Thai action cinema, while always being a generous host to his auteur guests.
He did a lot at and for IFFR. And thanks to him, IFFR always stood at the vanguard of East and Southeast Asian cinemas: the place for upcoming masters and film cultures bringing sights and sounds never seen before – be it the Fifth Generation in the People’s Republic of China, the South Korean cinema of the 1980s or Thai film of the 1990s. You name it, IFFR did its share to introduce it to international film culture.
Other spheres of Rayns’ interests left perhaps fainter traces at IFFR, but were no less characteristic of our programming vision, chiefly his passion for avant-garde cinema (see his 1979 monograph on Hellmuth Costard, for decades the only book on the subject), as well as the spikier kinds of queer films, be it Rainer Werner Fassbinder or Kenneth Anger.
Rayns was a man of many passions. And also many talents: starting out as a film critic with Time Out in the 1970s, he wrote widely on current trends in cinema; curated programmes for some of the most prestigious film and art institutions; (co-)directed two documentaries, both of which screened here; co-wrote the screenplay for Christopher Doyle’s eccentric Away with Words(1999); and subtitled numerous films, becoming the written voice especially of Jia Zhangke, and at times also of Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Wong Kar-wai, Nelson Yu Lik-wai and Hu Mei.
He did a lot, and he was always around when something interesting happened. He wasn’t always the easiest, and could be feisty. But this only means he stood his ground and stuck to his principles, ideas and visions – and for that, he’ll be remembered as someone who marched to the beat of his own drum while changing things and writing history.
Tony Rayns had a rich life, and IFFR is honoured and grateful that it was a part of it – that we can say: he was our friend.
– by Olaf Möller
