Frank Desmond BREN

I had a small exchange of emails with Frank in 2009 regarding the film by Brodsky on the Hong Kong Races in 1914. I recently made a small breakthrough regarding the races (not the film) and I wanted to share my news with Frank. I had lost his contact details so thought I would google him. To my utter sadness I found your tribute to him. I would like to extend my condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. In the brief contact I had with him, he came across as a true gent, and with so...

Je suis française et une amie de Frank
Je viens d apprendre son départ via internet
Je suis douloureuse tant cet homme était une pure merveille de pureté de gentillesse et d intelligence créative
Je me joins à sa famille et à ses amis pour lui souhaiter le plus beau des plus grands voyages
Merci Franck et bonne route
Marie laure

It was 1977 in London that I first met this one-off wonderful guy. I was in a play he wrote that we performed at Australia House. Years later I would often joke with him that I couldn't remember much about the play, except that there was a refrigerator in it. He loved such put-downs. Frank was a witness at my wedding to Kyoko in Brisbane in 2003. Since my moving to Japan that same year, though he possessed no actual mobile phone, he always went to the trouble of phoning me every three...

I shall miss our get togethers every three weeks or so, for a glass of wine at University House. Frank was a great character and an old fashioned gentleman. We shared many interests, including a mutual contempt for mobile phones! Frank was a true scholar, who spent his time researching (of late) the history of Hong Kong cinema. Hopefully someone is able to take up where he left off. My sympathy to his family. Sorry I will not be in Melbourne for his send off at La Mama.