Major Film Director Theo Angelopoulos Dies in Road Accident

Famed Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos, 76, died in a road accident yesterday. Police said that he was hit by a motorcycle while crossing the road in Athen. Angelopoulos was working on a new film called ‘The Other Sea’.

Theo Angelopoulos was a major European filmmaker who lived through the Nazi occupation of Greece. His film ‘Ulysses’ Gaze’, starring Harvey Keitel, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. In 1998, Angelopoulos won quite-possibly the biggest award in world cinema, the Palme d’Or, with his ‘Eternity and a Day’, starring Bruno Ganz.

The films of Angelopoulos were slow, thought-provoking affairs. In other words, nothing like Hollywood. For this, he baffled critics, with well-known critic Roger Ebert saying:

“There is a temptation to give ‘Ulysses’ Gaze’ the benefit of the doubt: To praise it for its vision, its daring, its courage, its great length. But I would not be able to look you in the eye if you went to see it, because how could I deny that it is a numbing bore?”

It is a shame that Theo Angelopoulos never got to finish ‘The Other Sea’ as it was set to address the grave economic situation in Greece. Last year, he talked about the pressing situation in a television interview:

“I remain a leftist in total confusion. This is an emergency situation. We must realize this. So we must all examine what can be done – the left and right. This is my plea. I am afraid of what tomorrow will bring.”

Source: The Telegraph