The two-time Oscar victor directed eight films in his lifetime, but is perhaps best known for the back-to-back success and failure of The Deer Hunter and his 1980 frontier flick, Heaven’s Gate, respectively.
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Michael Cimino, the Oscar-winning director of The Deer Hunter as well as the infamous Heaven’s Gate, has died, the New York Times confirmed.
The powerful film in 1978 made Cimino one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood.
The Times quoted the director’s friend and former lawyer Eric Weissmann as saying Cimino’s body was found at his home after friends were unable to reach him by telephone.
Though his claim to fame was causing the downfall of a movie studio (United Artists), there’s no denying that, though he only directed a handful of films, Michael Cimino was a talented and visionary filmmaker.
But Cimino’s followup, “Heaven’s Gate”, ran over-budget and almost four hours long – an epic financial dud.
Cimino wrote a 2001 novel, “Big Jane” and two years later collaborated with Francesca Pollock on the book “Conversations en miroir”.
However, his next project, called Heaven’s Gate, was a financial disaster and experts say it heralded tighter studio control over film budgets.
Michael Cimino got his start in the industry by directing commercials for companies like Pepsi and United Airlines.
On Saturday night, I was attending a Marx Brothers play in New York City (which I shall elaborate upon in a few days).
With the success of Vietnam war drama, Cimino earned a reputation as a prolific director. Cimino frequently denied any of the problems or controversy about the production of the movie behind the scenes, but it has been said that his perfectionist attitude frequently held up the movie, putting the film five days behind schedule when they had only been shooting for six days.
He said in 2010: “I never second-guess myself”.
Having worked on the screenplay for Clint Eastwood’s 1973 “Dirty Harry” film Magnum Force, Cimino was offered the chance to write and direct the star’s next film, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. I don’t believe in defeat. You can’t look back. “Everybody has bumps, but as Count Basie said, ‘It’s not how you handle the hills, it’s how you handle the valleys'”.
After studying painting at Yale, Cimino began directing TV commercials in NY. Above all, it’s a film that deserves to be seen and appreciated as more than just a punchline.
“I think that the overall attack that was launched on the director, Michael Cimino, is more interesting and worthy of analysis than the Heaven’s Gate cataclysm. And Heaven’s Gate is legendary for other reasons”.
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In the years since, “Heaven’s Gate” has been viewed much more favorably, and a 2012 restoration of the director’s full, uncut version bolstered a critical re-evaluation of the film.
