Nela

Far from being the great unmentionable, death seems to be a topic about which most people will witter on interminably at the drop of an armband. This death belongs to Nela (Cornelia), a painter of naive pictures in bold colour, and the daughter of the director (an Austrian documentary film-maker). She died of leukemia at 22 - a death in itself no different from anyone else's (normal, tragic), but whose circumstances here prompt a panegyric of bland mediocrity. It tells us nothing about her whatever. Her paintings remain; they can stand or fall on their own merits. Here death were better honoured by a decent silence. CPea.