Theo Angelopoulos, RIP
By Probably the greatest Greek filmmaker ever has died, killed by a motorcycle on the set of his film-in-progress. Angelopoulos received a good bit of publicity in the U.S. during the mid 90s, which is when I began to watch film. Landscape in the Mist is probably his most popular film and it’s one of the better road film movies (a genre that many find overrated and can definitely suck, but which I am inclined to forgive). The first Angelopoulos I saw was Ulysses’ Gaze with Harvey Keitel. Keitel plays a filmmaker traveling through the Balkans at the height of the violence. He ends up in Saravejo during the siege, leading to a wonderful scene of people walking around in the fog, feeling relatively safe. Angelopoulous’ films could be difficult to say the least and few have much distribution in the U.S., but he was a giant of film and will be missed.