The Understated Greatness of Donald Sutherland

The world of cinema has lost one of its all-time greats

The other day, I was exiting a cinema – shocking, I know – when I received a notification on WhatsApp: a text from my mother, announcing Donald Sutherland had passed away. To call it a momentous piece of news would be an understatement: social media was filled with tributes from friends, colleagues, critics and regular fans, prompting Sutherland’s son Kiefer to thank everyone who had reached out online. The loss was felt everywhere: as I write this, I’m in Bologna for the Cinema Ritrovato film festival, whose co-director Ehsan Khoshbakht cited Sutherland as one of two people to whom he wanted to dedicate this year’s edition (the other was film historian David Bordwell).