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Michael Antonio Cimino (/ɪˈmn/ chi-MEE-noh;[2] February 3, 1939 – July 2, 2016) was an American filmmaker. He achieved fame as the director of The Deer Hunter (1978), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Michael Cimino
Cimino in 2003
BornMichael Antonio Cimino
(1939-02-03)February 3, 1939
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedJuly 2, 2016(2016-07-02) (aged 77)
EducationMichigan State University
(BA Graphic Arts, 1959)
Yale University
(BFA Painting, 1961;
MFA Painting, 1963)
OccupationFilm director · Producer
Screenwriter · Author
Years active1972-2007
Notable workThe Deer Hunter
Heaven's Gate
SpouseJoann Carelli[1]

Born in New York City, Cimino began his career filming commercials and moved to Los Angeles to take up screenwriting in 1971. After co-writing the scripts of Silent Running (1972) and Magnum Force (1973), he wrote the preliminary script for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), which became his directorial debut, and one of the highest-grossing films of its year.[3]

The critical accolades for co-writing, directing, and producing The Deer Hunter in 1978 led to Cimino receiving creative control for Heaven's Gate (1980). The film became a critical failure and a legendary box-office bomb, which lost production studio United Artists an estimated $37 million. Its failure was widely credited with Hollywood studios shifting focus from director-driven films towards high-concept, crowd-pleasing blockbusters. In recent decades, Heaven's Gate has been dramatically reappraised, being named by BBC Culture as one of the greatest American films of all-time,[4] and by critic Robin Wood as "among the supreme achievements of the Hollywood cinema."[5] Following the release of his final film The Sunchaser in 1996, Cimino retired from filmmaking.


Early life


Cimino was born in New York City on February 3, 1939.[6][7][a 1] A third-generation Italian-American,[9][10] Cimino and his brothers grew up with their parents in the town of Westbury, on Long Island, New York.[11] He was regarded as a prodigy at the private schools to which his parents sent him, but rebelled as an adolescent by consorting with delinquents, getting into fights, and coming home drunk.[12] Of this time, Cimino described himself as

"always hanging around with kids my parents didn't approve of. Those guys were so alive. When I was fifteen I spent three weeks driving all over Brooklyn with a guy who was following his girlfriend. He was convinced she was cheating on him, and he had a gun, he was going to kill her. There was such passion and intensity about their lives. When the rich kids got together, the most we ever did was cross against a red light."[13]

His father was a music publisher.[12] Cimino says his father was responsible for marching bands and organs playing pop music at football games.[14]

"When my father found out I went into the movie business, he didn't talk to me for a year," Cimino said.[12] "He was very tall and thin ... His weight never changed his whole life and he didn't have a gray hair on his head. He was a bit like a Vanderbilt or a Whitney, one of those guys. He was the life of the party, women loved him, a real womanizer. He smoked like a fiend. He loved his martinis. He died really young. He was away a lot, but he was fun. I was just a tiny kid."[14]

His mother was a costume designer.[14] After he made The Deer Hunter, she said that she knew he had become famous because his name was in The New York Times crossword puzzle.[12]

Cimino graduated from Westbury High School in 1956. He entered Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. At Michigan State, Cimino majored in graphic arts, was a member of a weightlifting club, and participated in a group to welcome incoming students. He graduated in 1959 with honors and won the Harry Suffrin Advertising Award. He was described in the 1959 Red Cedar Log yearbook as having tastes that included blondes, Thelonious Monk, Chico Hamilton, Mort Sahl, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, and "drinking, preferably vodka."[15]

In Cimino's final year at Michigan State, he became art director, and later managing editor, of the school's humor magazine Spartan. Steven Bach wrote of Cimino's early magazine work:

"It is here that one can see what are perhaps the first public manifestations of the Cimino visual sensibility, and they are impressive. He thoroughly restyled the Spartan's derivative Punch look, designing a number of its strikingly handsome covers himself. The Cimino-designed covers are bold and strong, with a sure sense of space and design. They compare favorably to professional work honored in, say, any of the Modern Publicity annuals of the late fifties and are far better than the routine work turned out on Madison Avenue. The impact and quality of his work no doubt contributed to his winning the Harry Suffrin Advertising Award at MSU and perhaps to his acceptance at Yale."[15]

At Yale, Cimino continued to study painting as well as architecture and art history and became involved in school dramatics.[16] In 1962, while still at Yale, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve.[8][11] He trained for five months at Fort Dix, New Jersey and had a month of medical training in Fort Sam Houston, Texas.[8][12] Cimino graduated from Yale University, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1961 and his Master of Fine Arts in 1963, both in painting.[8][12]


Career



1960s


A still from Cimino's "Take Me Along" commercial[17]

After graduating from Yale, Cimino moved to Manhattan to work in Madison Avenue advertising and became a star director of television commercials.[12][18] He shot ads for L'eggs hosiery, Kool cigarettes, Eastman Kodak, United Airlines, and Pepsi, among others.[12][17] "I met some people who were doing fashion stuff  commercials and stills. And there were all these incredibly beautiful girls," Cimino said. "And then, zoom  the next thing I know, overnight, I was directing commercials."[12] For example, Cimino directed the 1967 United Airlines commercial "Take Me Along," a musical extravaganza in which a group of ladies sing "Take Me Along" (adapted from a short-lived Broadway musical) to a group of men, presumably their husbands, to take them on a flight.

The commercial is filled with the dynamic visuals, American symbolism and elaborate set design that became Cimino's trademark. "The clients of the agencies liked Cimino," remarked Charles Okun, his production manager from 1964 to 1978. "His visuals were fabulous, but the amount of time it took was just astronomical. Because he was so meticulous and took so long. Nothing was easy with Michael."[17] Through his commercial work, Cimino met Joann Carelli, then a commercial director representative. They began a 30-year on-again-off-again relationship.[12]


1970s


In 1971, Cimino moved to Los Angeles to start a career as a screenwriter.[13] According to Cimino, it was Carelli that got him into screenwriting: "[Joann] actually talked me into it. I'd never really written anything ever before. I still don't regard myself as a writer. I've probably written thirteen to fourteen screenplays by [1978] and I still don't think of myself that way. Yet, that's how I make a living."[19] Cimino added, "I started writing screenplays principally because I didn't have the money to buy books or to option properties. At that time you only had a chance to direct if you owned a screenplay which some star wanted to do, and that's precisely what happened with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot."[9][20]

Cimino gained representation from Stan Kamen of William Morris Agency.[21] The spec script Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was shown to Clint Eastwood, who bought it for his production company, Malpaso and allowed Cimino a chance to direct the film. Cimino co-wrote two scripts (the science fiction film Silent Running and Eastwood's second Dirty Harry film, Magnum Force) before moving to directing.[11] Cimino's work on Thunderbolt and Lightfoot impressed Eastwood enough to ask him to work on the script for Magnum Force before Thunderbolt and Lightfoot began production.

Cimino moved up to directing on the feature Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974).[18] The film stars Clint Eastwood as a Korean War veteran named "Thunderbolt" who takes a young drifter named "Lightfoot", played by Jeff Bridges, under his wing. When Thunderbolt's old partners try to find him, he and Lightfoot make a pact with them to pull one last big heist. Eastwood was originally slated to direct it himself, but Cimino impressed Eastwood enough to change his mind. The film became a solid box office success at the time, making $25,000,000 at the box office with a budget of $4,000,000[22] and earned Bridges an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

With the success of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Cimino said that he "got a lot of offers, but decided to take a gamble. I would only get involved with projects I really wanted to do." He rejected several offers before pitching an ambitious Vietnam War film to EMI executives in November 1976. To Cimino's surprise, EMI accepted the film.[13] Cimino went on to co-write, co-produce, and direct The Deer Hunter (1978). The film stars Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage as three buddies in a Pennsylvania steel mill town who fight in the Vietnam War and rebuild their lives in the aftermath. The film went over-schedule and over-budget,[23] but it became a massive critical and commercial success,[24] and won five Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture for Cimino.[25]


1980s


On the basis of his previous success, Cimino was given free rein by United Artists for his next film, Heaven's Gate (1980). The film came in several times over budget. After its release, it proved to be a financial disaster that nearly bankrupted the studio. Heaven's Gate became the lightning rod for the industry perception of the loosely controlled situation in Hollywood at that time. The film's failure marked the end of the New Hollywood era. Transamerica Corporation sold United Artists, having lost confidence in the company and its management.[26]

Heaven's Gate was such a devastating critical and commercial bomb that public perception of Cimino's work was tainted in its wake; the majority of his subsequent films achieved neither popular nor critical success.[27] Many critics who had originally praised The Deer Hunter became far more reserved about the picture and Cimino after Heaven's Gate. The story of the making of the movie, and UA's subsequent downfall, was documented in Steven Bach's book Final Cut. Cimino's film was somewhat rehabilitated by an unlikely source: the Z Channel, a cable pay TV channel that at its peak in the mid-1980s served 100,000 of Los Angeles's most influential film professionals. After the unsuccessful release of the re-edited and shortened Heaven's Gate, Jerry Harvey, the channel's programmer, decided to play Cimino's original 219-minute cut on Christmas Eve 1982. The reassembled movie received admiring reviews.[28] The full-length, director-approved version was released on LaserDisc by MGM/UA[29] and later reissued on DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection.[30]

In the wake of the Heaven's Gate debacle, Cimino was offered several projects, including the opportunity to direct Footloose, a mainstream teen film that went on to become a major commercial success. But his budgetary and creative demands led to him being fired and replaced by veteran director Herbert Ross.[31]

Cimino directed a 1985 crime drama, Year of the Dragon, which he and Oliver Stone adapted from Robert Daley's novel. Year of the Dragon was nominated for five Razzie awards, including Worst Director and Worst Screenplay.[32] The film was sharply criticized for what many saw as offensively stereotypical depictions of Chinese Americans.[14] Cimino directed The Sicilian from a Mario Puzo novel in 1987. The film bombed at the box office, costing an estimated $16 million[a 2], grossing $5 million domestically.[34]


1990s


In 1990, Cimino directed a remake of the film The Desperate Hours starring Anthony Hopkins and Mickey Rourke. The film was another box-office disappointment, grossing less than $3 million.[35] His last feature-length film was 1996's The Sunchaser with Woody Harrelson and Jon Seda. While nominated for the Palme d'Or at that year's Cannes Film Festival,[36] the film was released straight to video.[37]


2000s


In 2001, Cimino published his first novel, Big Jane. Later that year, the French Minister of Culture decorated him Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres[12] and the Prix Littéraire Deauville 2001, an award that previously went to Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal.[14] "Oh, I'm the happiest, I think, I've ever been!" he said in response.[14] Cimino also wrote a book called Conversations en miroir with Francesca Pollock in 2003.[38] In 2007, Cimino returned to directing briefly to contribute a 3-minute short segment for the anthology film To Each His Own Cinema. The filmmakers were invited to express "their state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theatre".[39]


Unrealized projects


From the beginning of his film career, Cimino was attached to many projects that either fell apart in pre-production or were jettisoned due to his reputation following Heaven's Gate. Steven Bach wrote that despite setbacks in Cimino's career, "he may yet deliver a film that will make his career larger than the cautionary tale it often seems to be or, conversely, the story of genius thwarted by the system that is still popular in certain circles."[40] Film historian David Thomson added to this sentiment: "The flimsy nastiness of his last four pictures is no reason to think we have seen the last of Cimino. ... If he ever emerges at full budgetary throttle, his own career should be his subject."[41] Cimino claimed he had written at least 50 scripts overall[14] and was briefly considered to helm The Godfather Part III.[42] According to Den of Geek, Cimino was also considered to direct The Dead Zone.[43]

Cimino's dream project was an adaptation of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Taking its cue from more than the novel, it was largely modeled on architect Jørn Utzon's troubled building of the Sydney Opera House, as well as the construction of the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York. He wrote the script in between Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Deer Hunter, and hoped to have Clint Eastwood play Howard Roark.[44][45] Cimino was also interested in adapting Rand's Atlas Shrugged.[46]

Cimino spent two and a half years working with James Toback on The Life and Dreams of Frank Costello, a biopic on the life of mafia boss Frank Costello, for 20th Century Fox. "We got a good screenplay together," said Cimino, "but again, the studio, 20th Century Fox in this case, was going through management changes and the script was put aside." Cimino added, "Costello took a long time because Costello himself had a long, interesting life. The selection of things to film was quite hard.[47] While working on the Costello biopic, Cimino wrote a biography on Janis Joplin called Pearl, also for 20th Century Fox.[12][47] "It's almost a musical," replied Cimino, "I was working with Bo Goldman on that one and we were doing a series of rewrites."[47] "All these projects were in the air at once," Cimino recalled, "I postponed The Fountainhead until we had a first draft on Pearl, then after meetings with Jimmy began Frank Costello."[47]

In 1984, after being unable to finalize a deal with director Herbert Ross, Paramount Pictures offered the job of directing Footloose to Cimino. According to screenwriter Dean Pitchford, Cimino was at the helm of Footloose for four months, making more and more extravagant demands in terms of set construction and overall production. In the process, Cimino reimagined the film as a musical-comedy inspired by The Grapes of Wrath. Paramount realized that it potentially had another Heaven's Gate on its hands. Cimino was fired and Ross was hired in his place to direct the picture.[45][48][49]

The same year Cimino was scheduled to work on The Pope of Greenwich Village, which would have reunited him with actor Mickey Rourke from Heaven's Gate. After Rourke and Eric Roberts signed as the leads, Cimino wanted to finesse the screenplay with some rewriting and restructuring. However, the rewriting would have taken Cimino beyond the mandated start date for shooting, so Cimino and MGM parted ways. Stuart Rosenberg was hired as a result.[50] The film, while receiving admiring reviews, bombed at the box office.

In 1987, Cimino attempted to make an epic saga about the 1920s Irish rebel Michael Collins, but the film had to be abandoned due to budget, weather, and script problems. The film was to have been funded by Nelson Entertainment.[51] Shortly after the Michael Collins biopic was cancelled, Cimino quickly started pre-production work on Santa Ana Wind, a contemporary romantic drama set in L.A. The start date for shooting was to have been early December 1987. The screenplay was written by Floyd Mutrux and the film was to be bankrolled by Nelson Entertainment, which also backed Collins. Cimino's representative added that the film was "about the San Fernando Valley and the friendship between two guys" and "more intimate" than Cimino's previous big-budget work like Heaven's Gate and the yet-to-be-released The Sicilian.[51] However, Nelson Holdings International Ltd. cancelled the project after disclosing that its banks, including Security Pacific National Bank, had reduced the company's borrowing power after Nelson failed to meet certain financial requirements in its loan agreements. A spokesman for Nelson said the cancellation occurred "in the normal course of business," but declined to elaborate.[52]

One of his final projects was writing a three-hour-long adaptation of André Malraux's 1933 novel Man's Fate, about the early days of the Chinese Revolution.[12][53] The story was to have focused on several Europeans living in Shanghai during the tragic turmoil that characterized the onset of China's Communist regime.[54] "The screenplay, I think, is the best one I've ever done," Cimino once said, adding that he had "half the money; [we're] trying to raise the other half."[14] The roughly $25 million project was to be filmed wholly on location in Shanghai and would have benefited from the support of China's government, which said it would provide some $2 million worth of local labor costs.[54] Cimino had been scouting locations in China since 2001.[12][23][53] "There was never a better time to try to do Man's Fate", Cimino said, "because Man's Fate is what it's all about right now. It's about the nature of love, of friendship, the nature of honor and dignity. How fragile and important all of those things are in a time of crisis." Martha De Laurentiis, who with her husband Dino helped produce Year of the Dragon and Desperate Hours with Cimino, read his script for Man's Fate and passed on it. "If you edit it down, it could be a very tight, beautiful, sensational movie," she said, "but violent, and ultimately a subject matter that I don't think America is that interested in."[12]

Year Title and description Ref.
1970s A film adaptation of Frederick Manfred's novel Conquering Horse, an epic set in pre-white America, to have been shot in authentic Sioux language [55][56]
A film adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead starring Clint Eastwood as Howard Roark [57][58][59]
Proud Dreamer or The Life and Dreams of Frank Costello, a biopic with James Toback about the life of Frank Costello starring Robert De Niro [60][59][61]
Pearl, a musical biopic with Bo Goldman about the life of Janis Joplin [59]
A film adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment [62]
A film adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's novel The Dogs of War [62][63]
Perfect Strangers, a romantic drama starring Roy Scheider, Romy Schneider and Oskar Werner [64][59]
The King of Comedy starring Andy Kaufman as Rupert Pupkin [lower-alpha 1][65][66]
1980s Live on Tape, retitled from Nitty Gritty, "a black comedy about news reporting" [67][lower-alpha 2]
A screenplay re-written by Raymond Carver and Tess Gallagher based on the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky [69][lower-alpha 3]
Reel to Reel, a musical with Steven Spielberg and Gary David Goldberg [68]
Footloose [71][lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5]
The Pope of Greenwich Village [76]
Purple Lake, a contemporary Western with Raymond Carver about juvenile delinquents who return to society after serving time in prison [69]
A film adaptation of Ralph Hurne's novel The Yellow Jersey starring Dustin Hoffman [68][77][lower-alpha 6]
Platoon starring Emilio Estevez as Staff Sergeant Bob Barnes [81][82]
A film adaptation of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged [83]
A film adaptation of William Kennedy's novel Legs starring Mickey Rourke as Legs Diamond and Leonard Termo as Diamond's bodyguard [84][lower-alpha 7]
A film adaptation of Porgy and Bess [45][86]
A film adaptation of Truman Capote's short story Handcarved Coffins, which Cimino turned down [lower-alpha 8][68]
Santa Ana Wind, a romantic thriller film written by Floyd Mutrux [lower-alpha 9]
1990s A biopic about the life of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, with Robert Bolt starring Gabriel Byrne [90][lower-alpha 10][lower-alpha 11]
A film adaptation of Philip Finch's novel Paradise Junction starring Clint Eastwood [93]
Full Circle, based on a story by John Woo [94]
The White Stallion [95]
The Dreaming Place, written by Rodney Patrick Vaccaro [96]
2000s A film adaptation of André Malraux's novel Man's Fate starring Johnny Depp, Daniel Day-Lewis, John Malkovich, Uma Thurman, and Alain Delon [97][lower-alpha 12]
Che [99]
2010s Cream Rises starring Taylor Swift [100][lower-alpha 13]
One Arm, a film about a boxer who loses his arm in a car accident [102]
A film about the history of America but told from the Native American perspective [103]
Untitled sci-fi film [104]

Directing style and influences


Cimino's films are often marked by their visual style[12][27] and controversial subject matter.[105][106][107] Elements of Cimino's visual sensibility include shooting in widescreen (in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio),[108] deliberate pacing[12] and big set-piece/non-dialogue sequences.[109] The subject matter in Cimino's films frequently focuses on aspects of U.S. history and culture, notably disillusionment over the American Dream.[110][41][111] Other trademarks of Cimino's movies include the casting of non-professional actors in supporting roles (Chuck Aspegren as Axel in The Deer Hunter, Ariane in Year of the Dragon).[112][113]

Cimino frequently credited John Ford,[114][a 3] Luchino Visconti and Akira Kurosawa[a 4] as his cinematic influences.[112][115] Cimino also said that if it were not for Clint Eastwood, he would not have been in the movies: "I owe everything to Clint."[112] Cimino also gave his literary influences as Vladimir Nabokov, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Gore Vidal, Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy, the classics of Islamic literature, Frank Norris and Steven Pinker.[53]


Interviews


Interviews with Cimino were rare; he declined all interviews with U.S. journalists for 10 years following Heaven's Gate[14] and he gave his part in the making of that film little discussion. George Hickenlooper's book Reel Conversations and Peter Biskind's highly critical book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls deal with the film and resulting scandal.[116] Hickenlooper's book includes one of the few candid discussions with Cimino; Biskind focuses on events during and after the production as a later backdrop for the sweeping changes made to Hollywood and the movie brat generation. Steven Bach, a former UA studio executive, wrote Final Cut (1985), which describes in detail how Heaven's Gate brought down United Artists. Cimino called Bach's book a "work of fiction" by a "degenerate who never even came on the set".[14] However, Bach's work does discuss times in which he appeared at the shooting location to confront Cimino about the budgetary issues.

While Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Francis Ford Coppola, Gene Hackman, Sidney Lumet and Robert De Niro all gave interviews for the 2009 John Cazale documentary I Knew It Was You, Cimino refused to do so.

However, the European DVD release of The Deer Hunter contains an audio commentary[113] with Cimino as does the U.S. DVD release of Year of the Dragon.[112]

In 2011, the French movie critic Jean-Baptiste Thoret wrote a large profile on Michael Cimino for Les Cahiers du Cinéma. Cimino appeared on the cover.

In 2013, Thoret published in France Michael Cimino, les voix perdues de l'Amérique (lost voices of America). Flammarion. ISBN 978-2081261600


Praise


After Cimino's success with The Deer Hunter, he was considered a "second coming" among critics.[23] In 1985, author Michael Bliss described Michael Cimino as a unique American filmmaker after only three films: "Cimino occupies an important position in today's cinema ... a man whose cinematic obsession it is to extract, represent, and investigate those essential elements in the American psyche ..."[110] Frequent collaborator Mickey Rourke has often praised Cimino for his creativity and dedication to work. On Heaven's Gate, Rourke has said, "I remember thinking this little guy [Cimino] was so well organized. He had this huge production going on all around him yet he could devote his absolute concentration on the smallest of details."[117]

In later years, Heaven's Gate was re-assessed by film critics, and re-edited versions were met with critical acclaim. In 2012, Cimino attended the premiere of a new edit at the Venice Film Festival, which was met with a standing ovation.[118][119][120][121]

Tarantino has also called Heaven's Gate a "masterpiece" and said the first scene in "Inglorious Basterds" was a tribute to it. This was during the publicity for the latter, around the time of Cannes. Film director/screenwriter Quentin Tarantino has also expressed great admiration and praise for Cimino's The Deer Hunter, especially with regards to the Vietnamese POW Russian roulette sequence: "The Russian roulette sequence is just out and out one of the best pieces of film ever made, ever shot, ever edited, ever performed. ... Anybody can go off about Michael Cimino all they want but when you get to that sequence you just have to shut up."[122] Tarantino also loved Cimino's Year of the Dragon[123] and listed its climax as his favorite killer movie moment in 2004.[124]

Film director/screenwriter Oliver Stone, who co-wrote the screenplay of Year of the Dragon with Cimino, said of him: "I have to admit I liked working with Michael Cimino, and I learned a lot from him."[125]


Criticisms


Cimino has been described by colleagues and critics as having been vain, self-indulgent, egotistical, megalomaniacal and an enfant terrible.[14][126] Producers and critics have tended to be harsher on Cimino than his collaborators. Critics, for example, Pauline Kael,[127] John Simon[128] and John Powers,[129] have also noted and criticized these qualities in many of the films he wrote and directed.


Colleagues


In writing about his experience working on The Sicilian, producer Bruce McNall described Cimino as "one part artistic genius and one part infantile egomaniac."[130] In his book, Blade Runners, Deer Hunters and Blowing the Bloody Doors Off, producer Michael Deeley described his experience with Cimino on Deer Hunter as a "travail",[131] adding "the only flaw I find in my Oscar [for The Deer Hunter] is that Cimino's name is also engraved on it."[132] Deeley criticized Cimino for lack of professional respect and standards: "Cimino was selfish. ... Selfishness, in itself, is not necessarily a flaw in a director, unless it swells into ruthless self-indulgence combined with a total disregard for the terms in which the production has been set."[133] Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond reported that Cimino was hard to work with but extremely talented visually.[134]


Critics


Movie critics Pauline Kael and John Simon criticized Cimino's abilities as a filmmaker and storyteller. After his failure with Heaven's Gate, some commentators joked and/or suggested that he should give back his Oscars for The Deer Hunter. Pauline Kael in The New Yorker described Cimino's storytelling abilities in her review of Year of the Dragon:

As I see it, Michael Cimino doesn't think in terms of dramatic values: he doesn't know how to develop characters, or how to get any interaction among them. He transposes an art-school student's approach from paintings to movies, and makes visual choices: this is a New York movie, so he wants a lot of blue and harsh light and a realistic surface. He works completely derivatively, from earlier movies, and his only idea of how to dramatize things is to churn up this surface and get it roiling. The whole thing is just material for Cimino the visual artist to impose his personality on. He doesn't actually dramatize himself—it isn't as if he tore his psyche apart and animated the pieces of it (the way a Griffith or a Peckinpah did). He doesn't animate anything.[127]

John Foote questioned whether or not Cimino deserved his Oscars for The Deer Hunter: "It seemed in the spring of 1979, following the Oscar ceremony, there was a sense in the industry that if the Academy could have taken back their votes — which saw The Deer Hunter and director Michael Cimino winning for Best Picture and Best Director — they would have done so."[135]

Peter Biskind described Cimino in relation to The Deer Hunter as "our first, home-grown fascist director, our own Leni Riefenstahl".[136]


Conflicting stories on background


Cimino was known for giving exaggerated, misleading, and conflicting (or simply tongue-in-cheek) stories about himself, his background, and his filmmaking experiences. "When I'm kidding, I'm serious, and when I'm serious, I'm kidding," responded Cimino. "I am not who I am, and I am who I am not."[14]


Age


Cimino gave various dates for his birth, usually shaving a couple of years off to seem younger, including February 3, 1943; November 16, 1943;[137] and February 3, 1952.[14] Many biographies about Cimino, such as the "Michael Cimino" entries in David Thomson's The New Biographical Dictionary of Film[41] and Ephraim Katz's Film Encyclopedia,[16] list his year of birth as 1943.[18][49] In reference to Cimino's interview with Leticia Kent on December 10, 1978, Steven Bach said, "Cimino wasn't thirty-five but a few months shy of forty."[8]


Education and early career


Cimino claimed he got his start in documentary films following his work in academia and nearly completed a doctorate at Yale.[138] Some of these details are repeated in reviews of Cimino's films[a 5] and his official summary biographies.[16][49] Steven Bach refuted those claims in his book Final Cut: "[Cimino] had done no work toward a doctorate and he had become known in New York as a maker not of documentaries but of sophisticated television commercials."[8]


Military service


During the production of The Deer Hunter, Cimino had given co-workers (such as cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and associate producer Joann Carelli) the impression that much of the story was autobiographical, somehow related to the director's own experience and based on the lives of men he had known during his service in Vietnam. Just as the film was about to open, Cimino gave an interview to The New York Times in which he claimed that he had been "attached to a Green Beret medical unit" at the time of the Tet Offensive of 1968. When the Times reporter, who had not been able to corroborate this, questioned the studio about it, studio executives panicked and fabricated "evidence" to support the story.[23] Universal Studios president Thom Mount commented at the time, "I know this guy. He was no more a medic in the Green Berets than I'm a rutabaga."[23] Tom Buckley, a veteran Vietnam correspondent for the Times, corroborated that Cimino had done a stint as an Army medic, but that the director had never been attached to the Green Berets. Cimino's active service – six months while a student at Yale in 1962 – had been as a reservist who was never posted to Vietnam.[140] Cimino's publicist reportedly said that the filmmaker intended to sue Buckley, but Cimino never did.[23]


Death


Cimino died July 2, 2016, at age 77 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.[141] No cause of death has been disclosed to the public.[142]


Filmography



As director


Year Title Director Writer Producer Notes
1974 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot Yes Yes No
1978 The Deer Hunter Yes Yes Yes Co-written with Deric Washburn, Louis A. Garfinkle and Quinn Redeker
1980 Heaven's Gate Yes Yes No
1985 Year of the Dragon Yes Yes No Co-written with Oliver Stone
1987 The Sicilian Yes No Yes
1990 Desperate Hours Yes No Yes
1996 The Sunchaser Yes No Yes
2007 To Each His Own Cinema Partial Partial No Segment: "No Translation Needed"

As writer


Year Title Notes
1972 Silent Running Co-written with Deric Washburn and Steven Bochco
1973 Magnum Force Co-written with John Milius
1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales Uncredited; co-written with Philip Kaufman and Sonia Chernus
1979 The Rose Uncredited; co-written with Bo Goldman and Bill Kerby
1980 The Dogs of War Uncredited; co-written with Gary DeVore and George Malko

Bibliography



Annotations


  1. Cimino gave various dates for his birth, but his real birthdate was most likely February 3, 1939. In reference to Cimino's interview with Leticia Kent on December 10, 1978, Bach said, "Cimino wasn't thirty-five but a few months shy of forty."[8]
  2. Estimate for The Sicilian film budget based on: "Total American gross at the box office was $5.5 million, about a third of our production costs." (3 x 5.5 = 16.5).[33]
  3. Three of Ford's films, They Were Expendable, The Searchers, and My Darling Clementine, are on Cimino's list of the ten best films of all time according to the 1992 Sight and Sound poll of directors.
  4. Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is also on Cimino's list of the 10 best films of all time.
  5. In Pauline Kael's review of The Deer Hunter, she wrote about Cimino "When his interest turned to movies, he worked in documentary film and in commercials ..."[139]
  1. Cimino's commitment with Heaven's Gate (1980) prevented him from directing the film.
  2. The Los Angeles Times reported that it was retitled Live on Tape and further described it as "a comedy-drama about TV camera crews and their competition for stories."[68]
  3. The director was impressed with the results, but the producer returned to Europe shortly thereafter, halting further script development.[70]
  4. Cimino requested $250,000 for a rewrite of the script.[72] As a result, Daniel Melnick fired Cimino from the production.[73]
  5. According to Melnick, "It might have been a good film (if Cimino had directed), but it wasn’t the film we wanted to make. It wasn’t the film we came to the party with--do you know what I mean?".[68] Craig Zadan, one of the film's producers, also stated, "Cimino wanted to make a darker film. We wanted to make entertainment."[74] Cimino was ultimately replaced by Herbert Ross.[75]
  6. The story takes place in the Tour de France and Cimino began to work on the adaptation in 1975 when he saw the 62nd edition that year.[78] The film was never made.[79] It has been said that Hoffman fired Cimino from the production.[80]
  7. The film was to have been based on William Kennedy's novel of the same name.[85]
  8. After being impressed with his work in Year of the Dragon (1985), Dino De Laurentiis hired Cimino to direct.[87] De Laurentiis had planned to release the film in 1986 following his purchase of Embassy Pictures.[88]
  9. The film was to have been set in the San Fernando Valley.[68] and distributed by Columbia Pictures, but in 1988, Nelson officially cancelled the production.[89]
  10. The film was to have been distributed by Columbia Pictures and David Puttnam reportedly gave Cimino the greenlight to direct the film.[91]
  11. Nelson Entertainment was also involved in the project.[68][89] According to Cimino, he co-wrote the script with Robert Bolt.[92]
  12. Cimino claimed in 2010 that he had half of the budget needed to make the film.[98] He confirmed in a 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he worked on the adapted script for one year and still hoped to make the film some day.[92]
  13. Christopher Walken was also attached to the project.[101]

References


  1. Sklar, Debbie L. "'Deer Hunter' Oscar director's widow named to oversee multi-million dollar estate". My News LA. My News LA. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
  2. Say How? A Pronunciation Guide to Names of Public Figures. Library of Congress. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  3. "Top Grossing Films of 1974". www.listal.com. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  4. "The 100 greatest American films". www.bbc.com. Retrieved May 24, 2022.
  5. Wood, Robin (1986). Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 267, 269, 283. ISBN 0-231-12966-1.
  6. "Michael Cimino - Biography and Filmography - 1939". February 6, 2015.
  7. Heard, p. 26.
  8. Bach, p. 170
  9. Andrews, p. 249.
  10. Lawton, Ben (2001). "America Through Italian/American Eyes: Dream or Nightmare?". From the Margins: Writing in Italian Americana. Purdue University. [Cimino is said to be Italian/American]
  11. Bliss, p. 268
  12. Griffin, Nancy (February 10, 2002). "Last Typhoon Cimino Is Back". The New York Observer 16 (6): pp. 1+15+17. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  13. Wakeman, John (1988). World Film Directors (2). The H. W. Wilson Company. pp. 214–219.
  14. Garbarino, Steve (March 2002). "Michael Cimino's Final Cut". Vanity Fair (499): pp. 232–235+250-252. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  15. Bach, p. 171
  16. Katz, Ephraim (1998). The Film Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins. p. 257. ISBN 0-06-273492-X.
  17. Epstein, Michael (director). (2004). Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate. [Television Production]. Viewfinder Productions.
  18. Hickenlooper, p. 76
  19. Carducci; Gallagher, p. 39.
  20. Andrews, p. 250.
  21. McGilligan, p. 237.
  22. Eliot, Marc (October 6, 2009). American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood (1st ed.). New York, NY: Rebel Road, Inc. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-307-33688-0.
  23. Biskind, Peter (March 2008). "The Vietnam Oscars". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
  24. Deeley, p. 197.
  25. Dirks, Tim. "The Deer Hunter (1978)". Greatest Films. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  26. Bach, p. 404.
  27. Bach, p. 420.
  28. Bach, p. 413
  29. "Heaven's Gate". LaserDisc Database. MGM/UA. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  30. "Heaven's Gate". The Criterion Collection. The Criterion Collection. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  31. "Michael Cimino: Salute to a Pariah". July 4, 2016.
  32. Wilson, John (January 2, 2002). "1985 Archive of 6th Annual RAZZIE Awards" Archived October 13, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. Razzies.com. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
  33. McNall & D'Antonio, Pg. 115.
  34. "The Sicilian". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  35. "Desperate Hours (1990)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
  36. "Festival de Cannes: Sunchaser". festival-cannes.com. 1996. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
  37. "The Sunchaser (1996)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
  38. Cimino, Michael; Pollock, Francesca (writer) (2003). Conversations en miroir (in French). Paris: Gallimard.
  39. Jacob, Gilles. "To Each His Own Cinema, The 60th Anniversary Film of the Festival de Cannes". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved December 28, 2007. [dead link]
  40. Bach, p. 421.
  41. Thomson, p. 178.
  42. Schumacher, Michael (October 19, 1999). Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker's Life (Hardcover ed.). New York, NY: Crown. p. 412. ISBN 978-0-517-70445-5.
  43. Lambie, Ryan (February 21, 2015). "Why The Dead Zone Is One of the Best Stephen King Films". Den of Geek. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  44. Hickenlooper, p. 78
  45. Chevrie, Marc; Narboni, Jean; Ostria, Vincent (November 1985). "The Right Place" (in French). Cahiers du cinéma (n377).
  46. Champlin, Charles (August 31, 1985). "Michael Cimino and the movie he made after 'Heaven's Gate'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
  47. Carducci; Gallagher, p. 40
  48. Holleran, Scott (October 12, 2004). "Shall We Footloose?". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
  49. Andrews, p. 245.
  50. Heard, p. 42.
  51. Klady, Leonard (October 4, 1987). "Checking On Cimino". Los Angeles. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
  52. Cieply, Michael (January 26, 1988). "Firm Cancels New Cimino Film Project". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
  53. Macnab, Geoffrey (December 6, 2001). "War stories". The Guardian. Retrieved April 30, 2011.
  54. Staff Reporter (September 4, 2001). "Michael Cimino Discovers 'Man's Fate' in Shanghai". Home Media Magazine.
  55. Weiler, A.H. (February 22, 1970). "A‐Jive in Denmark". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2019. “Conquering Horse,” an Indian drama to be directed this summer by 27‐year‐old Mike Cimino
  56. Whitney, Stu (December 12, 2015). "Whitney: How 'Revenant' left Frederick Manfred behind". Argus Leader. There was talk of "Deer Hunter" director Michael Cimino bringing "Conquering Horse" to the big screen, but the epic failure of Cimino's "Heaven's Gate," one of the biggest flops of all time, rendered that project implausible.
  57. Mueller, Matt (August 11, 2015). "Michael Cimino tells Locarno audience "I'll never stop"". Screen Daily. Retrieved July 26, 2019. There were several question about an adaptation of The Fountainhead, which Cimino had planned to make in the mid-1970s starring Clint Eastwood, which never came to fruition, and the director was only too happy to address them – as he did most questions – with long, rambling answers.
  58. McWeeny, Drew (July 3, 2016). "Michael Cimino, best remembered for 'Heaven's Gate,' is gone". Uproxx. Retrieved July 31, 2019. ...The Fountainhead with Clint Eastwood playing Howard Roark...
  59. Gallagher, John A. (1989). Film Directors on Directing. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780275932725.page 40
  60. Sobczynski, Peter (July 2, 2016). "WHAT ONE LOVES ABOUT LIFE ARE THE THINGS THAT FADE: MICHAEL CIMINO 1939-2016". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved July 31, 2019. ...including unproduced biopics on Frank Costello and Legs Diamond...
  61. Levy, Shawn (2015). De Niro: A Life. Crown/Archetype. ISBN 9780307716798.page 347
  62. "Michael Cimino – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. July 3, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2019. He wrote an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s The Dogs of War, attempted to adapt Crime and Punishment and began his long tussle with The Fountainhead, but nothing reached the screen under his direction.
  63. Scott B. (August 26, 2002). "Featured Filmmaker: Michael Cimino". IGN. Retrieved July 31, 2019. ...among them an adaptation of Frederick Forsyth¿s mercenaries-in-Africa novel The Dogs of War (the film was eventually made in 1981, but not using Cimino¿s screenplay)...
  64. Kachmar, Diane C. (2015). Roy Scheider: A Film Biography. McFarland. ISBN 9781476609034.page 209
  65. Grist, Leighton (2013). The Films of Martin Scorsese, 1978-99: Authorship and Context II. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403920355.page 69
  66. LoBrutto, Vincent (2008). Martin Scorsese: A Biography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275987053.page 255
  67. "40 FILM PROJECTS AT CBS". The New York Times. January 16, 1982. Retrieved August 1, 2019. CBS Theatrical Films has announced that it will be going into the movie business in a big way this year, with 40 films in various stages of development. Two of the movies will star Jon Voight and one will be directed by Michael Cimino, who won an Academy Award for The Deer Hunter in 1978 and then directed the $40 million failure Heaven's Gate....Mr. Cimino's Nitty Gritty, a black comedy about news reporting...
  68. Broeske, Pat H. (October 7, 1990). "Look Who's Back With a New Movie : 'The Deer Hunter' made Michael Cimino a winner, but his next film was the legendary failure 'Heaven's Gate.' With 'Desperate Hours,' the stakes have never been higher". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  69. Carver, Raymond; Gentry, Marshall Bruce; Stull, William L. (1990). Conversations with Raymond Carver. Univ. Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9780878054497. michael cimino purple lake.page xxvi
  70. Carver, Raymond; Gallagher, Tess (1984). "Dostoevsky: A Screenplay". New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly. New England Review and Bread Loaf Quarterly Vol. 6, No. 3 (Spring, 1984). 6 (3): 355–393. JSTOR 40374689.pp.355-393
  71. Rodriguez, Rene (October 14, 2011). "'Footloose:' a remake that makes sense". The Blade (Toledo). Retrieved August 1, 2019. In 1983, in one of the biggest "What were they thinking?" moves of all time, Paramount Pictures signed Michael Cimino to direct Footloose.
  72. Cormier, Roger (January 9, 2016). "18 Catchy Facts About Footloose". Mental Floss. Retrieved August 1, 2019. Michael Cimino, the Oscar-winning director of The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate, kept asking for grandiose set-ups and making more and more demands—like requesting $250,000 to rewrite the script, and to make the film darker. Paramount Pictures feared Cimino was going to lose them a ton of money after Heaven’s Gate bankrupted United Artists, and so they let him go. Herbert Ross (director of The Goodbye Girl and Steel Magnolias) took over.
  73. Harmetz, Aljean (September 2, 1987). "INDEPENDENT PRODUCER AND YOUNG STUDIO UNITE". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2019. He is a tough producer who fired Michael Cimino from Footloose when the director insisted on rewriting the script.
  74. Jordan, Chris (2003). Movies and the Reagan Presidency: Success and Ethics. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275979676.page 110
  75. Prince, Stephen (2002). A New Pot of Gold: Hollywood Under the Electronic Rainbow, 1980 1989. University of California Press. p. 134. ISBN 9780520232662. michael cimino footloose.page 134
  76. Gray, Tim (July 2, 2016). "Michael Cimino, 'Deer Hunter' and 'Heaven's Gate' Director, Dies at 77". Variety. Retrieved July 29, 2019. He also circled many projects eventually directed by others, including “The Bounty,” “Footloose,” “The Pope of Greenwich Village” and “Born on the Fourth of July.”
  77. Mathews, Jack (September 19, 1986). "THE 12-YEAR CYCLE TO GREEN-LIGHT 'THE YELLOW JERSEY'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 1, 2019. In 1984, Hoffman and director Michael Cimino accompanied Mehlman to France for the Tour, after which Hoffman told a French television interviewer that next to attending the birth of his child, watching the race was the most moving experience of his life. Mehlman figured that was it. But the deal fell through with Cimino, and Hoffman wasn’t satisfied with any of the directors that Mehlman or the studio suggested. The directors Hoffman said he would work with weren’t available.
  78. "DUSTIN HOFFMAN'S TOUR DE FRANCE". The New York Times. July 14, 1984. Retrieved August 1, 2019. Mr. Cimino, who directed Deer Hunter and Heaven's Gate, said he first began working on the movie in 1975, traveling with the Tour de France that year.
  79. Verswijver, Leo (2003). "Movies Were Always Magical": Interviews with 19 Actors, Directors, and Producers from the Hollywood of the 1930s through the 1950s. McFarland. ISBN 9780786411290.page 89
  80. Bennett, Bruce (2019). Cycling and Cinema. MIT Press. ISBN 9781906897994.pages 97-98
  81. Nashawaty, Chris (May 24, 2011). "Oliver Stone Platoon Charlie Sheen". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 29, 2019. Then there was a period in ’84 when Michael Cimino was going to produce it and Emilio Estevez was going to play the role, actually.
  82. Jagernauth, Kevin (May 25, 2011). "Oliver Stone Reveals Sidney Lumet & Al Pacino Nearly Made 'Platoon'". IndieWire. Retrieved July 29, 2019. Then there was a period in ’84 when Michael Cimino was going to produce it and Emilio Estevez was going to play the role, actually.
  83. Champlin, Charles (August 31, 1985). "Michael Cimino and the movie he made after 'Heaven's Gate'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
  84. Barnes, Mike (November 2, 2012). "Character Actor Leonard Termo Dies at 77". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 30, 2019. The pair also were set to appear in a Cimino biopic at Embassy Pictures about "Legs" Diamond that never got made, with Rourke as the legendary 1930s gangster and Termo playing his bodyguard.
  85. Hackett, Pat (August 16, 1985). "VERSATILE YOUNG ACTOR MICKEY ROURKE GETS HIS CANDOR UP ABOUT HIS". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 30, 2019. What about “Legs,” the movie based on William Kennedy’s novel about Legs Diamond?
  86. "Zum Tod des Hollywood-Schrecks Michael Cimino: Visionär und Egomane". Stuttgarter Nachrichten. July 3, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2019.Article in German
  87. Pond, Steve (August 1, 1985). "Dateline Hollywood". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 1, 2019. And with "Year of the Dragon" just beginning to make the preview-screening rounds, producer Dino is so happy with the movie that he's reportedly already asked Cimino to direct a film version of Truman Capote's book "Handcarved Coffins" . . .
  88. Harmetz, Aljean (October 4, 1985). "DE LAURENTIIS TO MARKET OWN FILMS". The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2019. His first movies for Embassy, in 1986, will be Triple Identity, an urban police thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; Trick or Treat, a horror movie to be released for Halloween; Hand Carved Coffins, the Truman Capote novella to be directed by Michael Cimino; Blue Velvet, a film written and directed by David Lynch; and a sequel to King Kong.
  89. Cieply, Michael (January 26, 1988). "Firm Cancels New Cimino Film Project". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 1, 2019.
  90. Clarke, Donald (July 3, 2016). "Michael Cimino: the man who once ruled Hollywood". The Irish Times. Retrieved July 27, 2019. In the early 1990s, he circled a proposed Michael Collins biopic with Gabriel Byrne in the lead.
  91. Pramaggiore, Maria (2008). Neil Jordan. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252075308.page 51
  92. Abramovitch, Sam (March 2, 2015). "Michael Cimino: The Full, Uncensored Hollywood Reporter Interview". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  93. Moerk, Christian (July 8, 1993). "Oscared pair on Rich slate". Variety. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
  94. Sandell, Jillian (January 1, 2001). "Interview with John Woo". Bright Lights Film Journal. Retrieved August 14, 2019. We are also planning a project based on a story by me called Full Circle. The director Michael Cimino will be writing the script.
  95. Fleming, Mike Jr. (July 28, 2020). "Oliver Stone On His Coming-Of-Age Memoir 'Chasing The Light,' The Challenge In Making A President Trump Movie & Times He Nearly Got Killed Making His Early Films – Q&A". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 27, 2022. Even later in time, back in the ’90s, when I got to be a director, I tried to help him. … Mario Kassar gave us some money to make his movie about the horse, The White Stallion. I think it was $14 million, but he just … he was too difficult to deal with.
  96. "Trimark's 'Dream' helmer: Cimino". Variety. July 2, 1997. Retrieved July 30, 2019. Michael Cimino, Oscar-winning director of “The Deer Hunter,” is attached to direct Trimark Pictures’ “The Dreaming Place.”
  97. "Michael Cimino: war stories". The Guardian. December 6, 2001. Retrieved August 1, 2019. His latest plan is to make a movie of André Malraux's La Condition Humaine (Man's Fate). He has the same publisher as Malraux, and earlier this year was awarded a Chevalier des Arts and des Lettres in Paris, a prize previously won by the French novelist. If it comes off, this exploration of a communist uprising in Shanghai will be on a gigantic scale, and Cimino, now in his late 50s, plans to shoot on location in China.
  98. Garbarino, Steve (April 15, 2010). "Michael Cimino's Final Cut". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 1, 2019. Cimino has written an adaptation of André Malraux’s 1933 novel about the early days of the Chinese Revolution, Man’s Fate. “The screenplay, I think, is the best one I’ve ever done,” he says, adding that he has “half the money; [we’re] trying to raise the other half.”
  99. Jagernauth, Kevin (September 23, 2016). "Lost Projects: Michael Cimino Wanted To Make A Movie With Taylor Swift" (in French). The Playlist. Retrieved June 27, 2022. Cimino apparently pitched himself to direct “Che” after Terrence Malick exited and before Steven Soderbergh was officially announced.
  100. de Guilhermier, Marine (October 4, 2016). "Michael Cimino : son projet avorté avec Taylor Swift" (in French). Orange S.A. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  101. Pallaruelo, Olivier (October 3, 2016). "Quand Michael Cimino voulait faire un film avec Taylor Swift" (in French). AlloCiné. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
  102. Pallaruelo, Olivier (October 3, 2016). "Quand Michael Cimino voulait faire un film avec Taylor Swift" (in French). AlloCiné. Retrieved June 27, 2022. Parmi les autres projets évoqués par le PDG de Wild Bunch figure aussi One Arm, une sombre histoire d'un boxeur perdant un bras dans un accident de voiture.
  103. Pallaruelo, Olivier (October 3, 2016). "Quand Michael Cimino voulait faire un film avec Taylor Swift" (in French). AlloCiné. Retrieved June 27, 2022. Celui d'un film qui devait raconter l'Histoire de l'Amérique du point de vue des natives américains. "Un film sur le génocide et ensuite sur une vie à la fois protégée, dans les réserves, et humiliée par la bonne conscience américaine confrontée au crime originel. Le film devait donc se faire dans leur langue, autrement cela aurait été comme une trahison, mais ça l’empêchait de compter sur des stars, raison pour laquelle il n’avait pas pu le faire".
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General sources



Further reading





На других языках


- [en] Michael Cimino

[es] Michael Cimino

Michael Cimino (Nueva York; 3 de febrero de 1939 - Beverly Hills, 2 de julio de 2016)[1] fue un director de cine, guionista y productor estadounidense. Fue más conocido por dirigir, producir y coescribir la película ganadora del Óscar 1978 The Deer Hunter y por escribir y dirigir el fracaso crítico y financiero de 1980 La puerta del cielo.

[ru] Чимино, Майкл

Майкл Чимино (англ. Michael Cimino, 3 февраля 1939 — 2 июля 2016) — американский кинорежиссёр, сценарист и продюсер. Лауреат премии «Оскар», наиболее известен как режиссёр картины «Охотник на оленей».



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