Two-time Oscar nominee Van Os passes away after a long illness.

THE HAGUE, 20120705 -- After a long illness, Ben van Os (The Hague, December 1, 1944) passed away on Monday, July 2, 2012. As a production designer, Ben van Os played a major role in both the Dutch and international film worlds. Van Os spent the past four years at the De Eshoeve nursing home in Scheveningen. The exact cause of death is unknown, but he suffered from MSA (Multiple System Atrophy), which caused him to be slowly 'incapacitated'.

Ben van Os became known as the production designer of the films he made with Peter Greenaway, including The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, and of many other films such as Orlando (by Sally Potter), for which he received an Oscar nomination together with Jan Roelfs, and Girl with a Pearl Earring (by Peter Webber), which also earned him an Oscar nomination.

In 1991, Ben van Os and Jan Roelfs received a Golden Calf for their joint oeuvre. In addition, Ben van Os received a series of other awards for his extensive work. In his final active year, Ben was also awarded the Ouborg Prize for Visual Arts (2005).

The film 'Dark Blood' – starring River Phoenix – has never been released to date. Director George Sluizer is now working hard to finally finish the film and make it available to the public. This film was partially shot in 1993, but due to the sudden death of River Phoenix, it was never completed.

A film is currently being shot about the life—and death—of this remarkable artist. This film tells the story of his life and career from the perspective of the man trapped in his body by the disease to which he must slowly but surely surrender.

Ben van Os became famous for his baroque, dreamlike film design. He argues that the 'castles in the air' he creates constitute a reality in themselves—an 'intensified reality' grafted onto the artificial language of painting and theater, with an emphasis on light, color, and texture.

source:http://www.nieuwsbank.nl/inp/2012/07/05/G006.htm



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