Documentary filmmaker Les Blank passed away last Sunday at age 77. He was perhaps best known for his association with a crazy German named Werner Herzog. Personally, my favorite Les Blank piece is Burden of Dreams, which captured the grueling four-year ordeal that was the production of Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo.
The Criterion Collection has a Tumbler, and yesterday they posted a photo of Les Blank’s coffin:
WOW. Mr. Blank is going out in style in a home-spun collaborative art piece.
I believe that is the greatest funeral idea in the world.
Screw somber, polished wood boxes with expensive metal trimmings. When I die, I want all you crazy people to bling the fuck out of my pine box. I want my coffin to look like a Michael’s craft store exploded. And when you’re done, I want you guys to wheel that thing into a crematorium, and then stash the glitter-and-bone ashes under a tree somewhere.
I also look forward to attending other funerals with DIY coffin art. Get on this, people!
