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Michael Antonio Cimino ( ; February 3, 1939 – July 2, 2016) was an American filmmaker. One of the " New Hollywood" directors, Cimino achieved fame with ''
The Deer Hunter ''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro ...
'' (1978), which won five
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
s, including Best Picture and Best Director. 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 ''Silent Running'' is a 1972 American environmental-themed apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic science fiction film. It is the directorial debut of Douglas Trumbull, and stars Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, and Jesse ...
'' (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. 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 A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, which lost production studio
United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...
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, and by critic Robin Wood as "among the supreme achievements of the Hollywood cinema." His final feature film was ''
The Sunchaser ''The Sunchaser'' (marketed simply as ''Sunchaser'' in promotional material) is a 1996 crime drama film directed by Michael Cimino and starring Woody Harrelson, Jon Seda and Anne Bancroft. It was director Cimino's last feature-length film. Plo ...
'', released in 1996. Up until his death, he continued to work on films that were ultimately never made.


Early life

Cimino was born in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
on February 3, 1939.Heard, p. 26. 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." A third-generation
Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...
,Andrews, p. 249. Cimino and his brothers grew up in suburban Westbury, New York on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...
.Bliss, p. 268 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.Griffin, Nancy (February 10, 2002)
"Last Typhoon Cimino Is Back"
''
The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...
'', 16 (6): pp. 1, 15-17. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
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 Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
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."Wakeman, John (1988). ''World Film Directors'' (2). The H. W. Wilson Company. pp. 214–219.
His father was a music publisher. Cimino says his father was responsible for marching bands and organs playing pop music at football games.
"When my father found out I went into the movie business, he didn't talk to me for a year," Cimino said. "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."
His mother was a costume designer. After he made ''
The Deer Hunter ''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro ...
,'' she said that she knew he had become famous because his name was in ''The New York Times'' crossword puzzle. Cimino graduated from Westbury High School in 1956. He entered Michigan State University in
East Lansing, Michigan East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County with a smaller portion extending north into Clinton County. At the 2020 Census the population was 47,741. Located directly east of the state capital ...
. 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 Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...
,
Chico Hamilton Foreststorn "Chico" Hamilton (September 20, 1921 – November 25, 2013) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He came to prominence as sideman for Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Count Basie, and Lena Horne. Hamilton became a bandleader ...
,
Mort Sahl Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian. Sahl pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event t ...
,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloy ...
,
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
, and "drinking, preferably vodka."Bach, p. 171 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 Steven Bach (April 29, 1938 – March 25, 2009) was an American writer and lecturer on film and a former senior vice-president and head of worldwide productions for United Artists studios. Career Starting out at Pantheon Films he worked on ''The P ...
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 Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pu ...
'' 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 Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Str ...
. 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."
At Yale, Cimino continued to study painting as well as architecture and art history and became involved in school dramatics. In 1962, while still at Yale, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve. He trained for five months at Fort Dix, New Jersey and had a month of medical training at Fort Sam Houston,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. Cimino graduated from Yale, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1961 and his Master of Fine Arts in 1963, both in painting.Bach, p. 170


Career


1960s

After graduating from Yale, Cimino moved to Manhattan to work in Madison Avenue advertising and became a star director of television commercials.Hickenlooper, p. 76 He shot ads for
L'eggs L'eggs is a brand of pantyhose, introduced in 1969 by Hanes, which radically changed the hosiery marketplace. The novel developments were the egg-shaped plastic product container, the shift to consignment sales in drug stores and groceries, and th ...
hosiery, Kool cigarettes,
Eastman Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
,
United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.
, and
Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi wa ...
, among others. "I met some people who were doing fashion stuffcommercials and stills. And there were all these incredibly beautiful girls," Cimino said. "And then, zoomthe next thing I know, overnight, I was directing commercials." For example, Cimino directed the 1967
United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.
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."Epstein, Michael (director). (2004). ''Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven's Gate''. elevision Production Viewfinder Productions. Through his commercial work, Cimino met Joann Carelli, then a commercial director representative. They began a 30-year on-again-off-again relationship.


1970s

In 1971, Cimino moved to Los Angeles to start a career as a screenwriter. According to Cimino, it was Carelli that got him into screenwriting: " oannactually 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 978and I still don't think of myself that way. Yet, that's how I make a living."Carducci; Gallagher, p. 39. 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''."Andrews, p. 250. Cimino gained representation from Stan Kamen of
William Morris Agency The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent ag ...
. The spec script ''Thunderbolt and Lightfoot'' was shown to
Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...
, 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 ''Silent Running'' is a 1972 American environmental-themed apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic science fiction film. It is the directorial debut of Douglas Trumbull, and stars Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, and Jesse ...
'' and Eastwood's second
Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American neo-noir action thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the ''Dirty Harry'' series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department (SFP ...
film, '' Magnum Force'') before moving to directing. 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''. The film stars Clint Eastwood as a
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...
veteran named "Thunderbolt" who takes a young drifter named "Lightfoot", played by
Jeff Bridges Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Bridges comes from a prominent ac ...
, 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 and earned Bridges an
Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Cimino later said that if it were not for Clint Eastwood, he would not have been in the movies: "I owe everything to Clint."Cimino, Michael (director) (2005). ''Commentary by director Michael Cimino''. 'Year of the Dragon'' Region 1 DVD Turner Entertainment Co. 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. Cimino went on to co-write, co-produce, and direct ''
The Deer Hunter ''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro ...
''. The film stars
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
,
Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...
, and John Savage as three buddies in a
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
steel mill town who fight in the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
and rebuild their lives in the aftermath. The film went over-schedule and over-budget, but it became a massive critical and commercial success,Deeley, p. 197. and won five
Oscars The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, including Best Director and Best Picture for Cimino.Dirks, Tim
"''The Deer Hunter'' (1978)"
Greatest Films. Retrieved May 26, 2010.


1980s

On the basis of his previous success, Cimino was given free rein by
United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...
for his next film, '' Heaven's Gate''. 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 Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...
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.Bach, p. 404. ''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.Bach, p. 420. 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 Steven Bach (April 29, 1938 – March 25, 2009) was an American writer and lecturer on film and a former senior vice-president and head of worldwide productions for United Artists studios. Career Starting out at Pantheon Films he worked on ''The P ...
's book ''Final Cut''. Cimino's film was somewhat rehabilitated by an unlikely source: the Z Channel, a cable
pay TV Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...
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.Bach, p. 413 The full-length, director-approved version was released on LaserDisc by MGM/UA and later reissued on DVD and Blu-ray by
the Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...
. Cimino directed a 1985 crime drama, '' Year of the Dragon'', which he and
Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...
adapted from Robert Daley's novel. ''Year of the Dragon'' was nominated for five
Razzie The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
awards, including Worst Director and Worst Screenplay. The film was sharply criticized for what many saw as offensively stereotypical depictions of Chinese Americans. Cimino directed ''
The Sicilian ''The Sicilian'' is a novel by American author Mario Puzo. Published in 1984 by Random House Publishing Group (), it is based on the life of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano. It is set in the same universe as Puzo's most famous work, ''The ...
'' from a Mario Puzo novel in 1987. The film bombed at the box office, costing an estimated $16 million, grossing $5 million domestically."''The Sicilian''"
Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray be ...
. Retrieved July 17, 2010.


1990s

In 1990, Cimino directed a
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the sam ...
of the film '' The Desperate Hours'' starring
Anthony Hopkins Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins (born 31 December 1937) is a Welsh actor, director, and producer. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received many accolad ...
and
Mickey Rourke Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles i ...
. The film was another box-office disappointment, grossing less than $3 million."''Desperate Hours'' (1990)"
Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 31, 2011.
According to some official sources, Michael Cimino's original cut of ''Desperate Hours'' was mutilated by the film's producers, resulting in a very badly edited film filled with plot holes. The only known proof of any deleted scenes are some stills which seemingly show a few of them. His last feature-length film was 1996's ''
The Sunchaser ''The Sunchaser'' (marketed simply as ''Sunchaser'' in promotional material) is a 1996 crime drama film directed by Michael Cimino and starring Woody Harrelson, Jon Seda and Anne Bancroft. It was director Cimino's last feature-length film. Plo ...
'' with
Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
and
Jon Seda Jonathan Seda (born October 14, 1970) is a Puerto Rican actor. Seda was an amateur boxer who auditioned for and was given a role in the 1992 boxing film ''Gladiator''. He played the role of Chris Pérez alongside Jennifer Lopez in the movie '' ...
. While nominated for the
Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
at that year's
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...
,"Festival de Cannes: Sunchaser"
festival-cannes.com. 1996. Retrieved June 2, 2011.
the film was released straight to video.
Box Office Mojo. Retrieved May 31, 2011.


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 and the Prix Littéraire Deauville 2001, an award that previously went to
Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Maile ...
and
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...
. "Oh, I'm the happiest, I think, I've ever been!" he said in response. Cimino also wrote a book called ''Conversations en miroir'' with Francesca Pollock in 2003. In 2007, Cimino returned to directing briefly to contribute a 3-minute short segment for the anthology film ''
To Each His Own Cinema ''To Each His Own Cinema'' (french: link=no, Chacun son cinéma : une déclaration d'amour au grand écran) is a 2007 French comedy-drama anthology film commissioned for the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. The film is a collection of ...
''. The filmmakers were invited to express "their state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theatre".


2010s

Throughout the 2010s Cimino continued to write screenplays, struggling to get any of them financed. In 2012, Cimino attended the premiere of a new edit of '' Heaven's Gate'' at the Venice Film Festival, which was met with a standing ovation. The film was re-assessed by film critics, and re-edited versions were met with critical acclaim. In 2015, Cimino received the
Locarno Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...
's Leopard of Honour on the Piazza Grande.


Death and legacy

Cimino died July 2, 2016, at age 77 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. No cause of death has been disclosed to the public. Since his death, many directors, actors, and other public figures paid tribute to him, including
Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a ...
,
William Friedkin William "Billy" Friedkin (born August 29, 1935)Biskind, p. 200. is an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter closely identified with the " New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in ...
,
Paul Rust Paul Robert Rust (born April 12, 1981) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He starred in the 2009 film ''I Love You, Beth Cooper'' and in the Netflix series '' Love''. Early life Rust was born in Le Mars, Iowa, the son of Jeanne and Bob ...
,
Christopher McQuarrie Christopher McQuarrie is an American filmmaker. He received the BAFTA Award, Independent Spirit Award, and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the neo-noir mystery film ''The Usual Suspects'' (1995). He made his directorial debut wit ...
, Kelly Lynch,
Jason Reitman Jason R. Reitman (; born October 19, 1977) is a Canadian-American actor and filmmaker, best known for directing the films '' Thank You for Smoking'' (2005), '' Juno'' (2007), '' Up in the Air'' (2009), '' Young Adult'' (2011), and '' Ghostbuste ...
,
Mark Romanek Mark Romanek (; born September 18, 1959) is an American filmmaker whose directing work includes feature films, television, music videos and commercials. Romanek wrote and directed the 2002 film ''One Hour Photo'' and directed the 2010 film '' Neve ...
and Jay Baruchel. Film critic F. X. Feeney (a close friend of Cimino's) wrote:
"A few weeks before his death, Michael consulted a physician about a mild respiratory complaint but otherwise suffered no signs of ill health. When I last had lunch with him on June 19th, he was full of energy and plans. Nevertheless, because he was an intuitive man, I feel certain looking back that he had an inkling his life was drawing to a close. He took deliberate care to mend fences with as many people as he could in the last year of his life, and with me that last day he was more reflective than I’d ever known him to be about his early life. He was full of amused memories centered on his dad’s fierce perfectionism. Friends and loved ones found him impossible to reach after the 28th of June, and – when the police entered his house after several days – the officer who found him tucked in his bed described him as “peacefully deceased.” His heart had apparently stopped without trauma, in sleep. There was no funeral or public memorial thereafter, and he needs none. His monuments are onscreen."
His work has been lauded by such filmmakers as
Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...
,
Agnès Varda Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter, photographer, and artist. Her pioneering work was central to the development of the widely influential French New Wave film ...
,
David Gordon Green David Gordon Green is an American filmmaker. He directed the dramas ''George Washington'' (2000), ''All the Real Girls'' (2003), and '' Snow Angels'' (2007), as well as the thriller '' Undertow'' (2004), all of which he wrote or co-wrote. In 20 ...
,
James Gray James, Jim, or Jimmy Gray may refer to: Politicians * James Gray (Australian politician) (1820–1889), member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly * James Gray (British politician) (born 1954), British politician * James Gray (mayor) (1862–1916) ...
and
Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
.
Oliver Stone William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...
, a long time collaborator of Cimino's, said of him: "I have to admit I liked working with Michael Cimino, and I learned a lot from him."


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 Steven Bach (April 29, 1938 – March 25, 2009) was an American writer and lecturer on film and a former senior vice-president and head of worldwide productions for United Artists studios. Career Starting out at Pantheon Films he worked on ''The P ...
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." 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." In March 2002, Cimino claimed he had written at least 50 scripts overall. Cimino's dream project was an adaptation of
Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
's '' The Fountainhead''. Taking its cue from more than the novel, it was largely modeled on architect
Jørn Utzon Jørn Oberg Utzon, , Hon. FAIA (; 9 April 191829 November 2008) was a Danish architect. He was most notable for designing the Sydney Opera House in Australia, completed in 1973. When it was declared a World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007, Utzon ...
's troubled building of the
Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive buildings and a masterpiece of 20th-century architec ...
, as well as the construction of the
Empire State Plaza The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza (known commonly as the Empire State Plaza, and also as the South Mall) is a complex of several state government buildings in downtown Albany, New York. The complex was built between 1965 a ...
in Albany, New York. He wrote the script in between '' Thunderbolt and Lightfoot'' and ''
The Deer Hunter ''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro ...
'', and hoped to have
Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...
play Howard Roark.Hickenlooper, p. 78Chevrie, Marc; Narboni, Jean; Ostria, Vincent (November 1985). "The Right Place" (in French). ''Cahiers du cinéma'' (n377). Cimino continued to hope to film the script until his death in 2016.


Influences and style


Influences

Cimino has shown great admiration for
Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...
,
John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
and
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
, dubbing them "
The Holy Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...
of movies."Andrews, p. 248.Hickenlooper, p. 88. He has also praised the films of
Sam Peckinpah David Samuel Peckinpah (; February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director and screenwriter. His 1969 Western epic ''The Wild Bunch'' received an Academy Award nomination and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institut ...
. Cimino also named his literary influences as
Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...
,
Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
,
Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
,
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...
, Raymond Carver,
Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr., July 20, 1933) is an American writer who has written twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays and three short stories, spanning the Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is known for his g ...
, the classics of
Islamic literature Islamic literature is literature written by Muslim people, influenced by an Islamic cultural perspective, or literature that portrays Islam. It can be written in any language and portray any country or region. It includes many literary forms incl ...
,
Frank Norris Benjamin Franklin Norris Jr. (March 5, 1870 – October 25, 1902) was an American journalist and novelist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include '' McTeague: A Story of Sa ...
and
Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. ...
.Macnab, Geoffrey (December 6, 2001)
"War stories"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved April 30, 2011.
In 1992, Cimino participated in the ''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' film polls. Held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, directors were asked to select ten films of their choice. Cimino's choices were: * '' The Leopard'' (Italy, 1963) * '' They Were Expendable'' (USA, 1945) * '' Ludwig'' (Italy/France, 1973) * ''
The Searchers ''The Searchers'' is a 1956 American Technicolor VistaVision epic Western film directed by John Ford and written by Frank S. Nugent, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May. It is set during the Texas-Native American wars, and stars John W ...
'' (USA, 1956) * ''
La Strada ''La strada'' () is a 1954 Italian drama film directed by Federico Fellini and co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film tells the story of Gelsomina, a simple-minded young woman (Giulietta Masina) bought from her mother ...
'' (Italy, 1954) * ''
Children of Paradise ''Children of Paradise'' (original French title: ''Les Enfants du Paradis'') is a two-part French romantic drama film by Marcel Carné, produced under war conditions in 1943, 1944, and early 1945 in both Vichy France and Occupied France. Set ...
'' (France, 1945) * ''
My Darling Clementine ''My Darling Clementine'' is a 1946 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp during the period leading up to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The ensemble cast also features Victor Mature (as Doc Hol ...
'' (USA, 1946) * '' La Dolce Vita'' (Italy, 1960) * '' Rocco and His Brothers'' (Italy, 1960) * ''
Seven Samurai is a 1954 Japanese epic samurai drama film co-written, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The story takes place in 1586 during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. It follows the story of a village of desperate farmers who hire sev ...
'' (Japan, 1954)


Themes and style

Cimino's films are often marked by their controversial subject matter and striking visual style. Elements of Cimino's visual sensibility include shooting in
Widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
(in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio), painterly compositions, jittery tracking shots and wide vista
establishing shots An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning o ...
that emphasize the Earth's landscape and nature. Cimino's films are also slowly paced, focusing less on story and more on characters, allowing the viewer to observe their nuances and the setting. The subject matter in Cimino's films frequently focuses on aspects of U.S. history and culture, notably disillusionment over the American Dream. Other trademarks include love triangles between central characters, sudden bursts of violence in seemingly tranquil or naturalistic settings and the casting of non-professional actors in supporting roles.Cimino, Michael (director); Feeney, F. X. (critic). ''DVD commentary by director Michael Cimino and film critic F. X. Feeney''. Included on ''
The Deer Hunter ''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro ...
'' UK region 2 DVD release and the StudioCanal Blu-ray.


Frequent collaborators

Cimino worked with
Mickey Rourke Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles i ...
on several films, '' Heaven's Gate'', '' Year of the Dragon'' and '' Desperate Hours'', as well as a planned adaptation of William Kennedy's novel ''
Legs A leg is a weight-bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape. During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts". The combination of movements at all joints can be modeled as a single, linear element c ...
'' with Rourke playing gangster
Legs Diamond Jack "Legs" Diamond (possibly born John Thomas Diamond, though disputed; July 10, 1897 – December 18, 1931), also known as Gentleman Jack, was an Irish American gangster in Philadelphia and New York City during the Prohibition era. A bootleg ...
. Cimino also did the pre-production work for '' The Pope of Greenwich Village''.
Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...
also worked with Cimino on many projects with ''
The Deer Hunter ''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro ...
'' and ''Heaven's Gate'' being the only ones that were ever made. Later, in the 2010s, Walken was attached to star in ''Cream Rises'' with
Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bo ...
. Cimino also did uncredited contributions for the
film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
of '' The Dogs of War'' which Walken starred in. Cimino rewrote
John Milius John Frederick Milius (; born April 11, 1944) is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. He was a writer for the first two '' Dirty Harry'' films, received an Academy Award nomination as screenwriter of '' Apocalypse Now'' (1979), ...
's screenplay for '' Magnum Force'' as a favor to
Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the " Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "'' Do ...
. A year later, Cimino directed him in '' Thunderbolt and Lightfoot''. After that, in the mid-70s, Cimino wanted him to play Howard Rourk in his adaptation of
Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
's '' The Fountainhead''. Eastwood turned it down but enlisted Cimino to assist Philip Kaufman in rewriting the screenplay for '' The Outlaw Josey Wales'', although he remains uncredited for his work.McGilligan (1999), p. 257 Cimino was also set to direct Eastwood in his adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's ''The Dogs of War'' but dropped out to work on ''Heaven's Gate''. The film was ultimately made without Eastwood. It was later reported in the early '90s that Cimino was adapting the novel ''Paradise Junction'' with Eastwood attached to star. It was unclear if he planned to direct it.
Jeff Bridges Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Bridges comes from a prominent ac ...
co-starred in ''Thunderbolt and Lightfoot'' alongside Clint Eastwood and as a supporting character in ''Heaven's Gate''. Bridges was also briefly considered for the role of Stanley White in ''Year of the Dragon''."''Year of the Dragon'' (1985) – Trivia"
.
IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
In the mid-70s, Cimino and James Toback wrote a
biopic A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudr ...
about gangster
Frank Costello Frank Costello (; born Francesco Castiglia; ; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out ...
. Later, after working with Cimino on ''The Deer Hunter'',
Robert De Niro Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
signed on for the Costello role.page 347 The film was never made.


Public image

After Cimino's success with ''
The Deer Hunter ''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro ...
'', he was considered a "second coming" among critics. Biskind, Peter (March 2008)
"The Vietnam Oscars"
''Vanity Fair''. Retrieved August 28, 2010.
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 ..."Bliss, p. 147 Frequent collaborator
Mickey Rourke Philip Andre "Mickey" Rourke Jr. (; born September 16, 1952) is an American actor and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. During the star of the 1980s, Rourke played supporting roles i ...
has often praised Cimino for his creativity and dedication to work. On '' Heaven's Gate'', Rourke has said, "I remember thinking this little guy iminowas 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." In writing about his experience working on ''
The Sicilian ''The Sicilian'' is a novel by American author Mario Puzo. Published in 1984 by Random House Publishing Group (), it is based on the life of Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano. It is set in the same universe as Puzo's most famous work, ''The ...
'', producer
Bruce McNall Bruce Patrick McNall (born April 17, 1950) is an American former Thoroughbred racehorse owner, sports executive, and convicted felon who once owned the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canad ...
described Cimino as "one part artistic genius and one part infantile egomaniac."McNalll & D'Antonio, p. 103 In his book, ''Blade Runners, Deer Hunters and Blowing the Bloody Doors Off'', producer
Michael Deeley Michael Deeley (born 6 August 1932) is an Academy Award-winning British film producer known for such motion pictures as ''The Italian Job'' (1969), ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), and ''Blade Runner'' (1982). He is also a founding member and Honora ...
described his experience with Cimino on ''Deer Hunter'' as a "travail", adding "the only flaw I find in my Oscar or ''The Deer Hunter''is that Cimino's name is also engraved on it." 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."Deeley, p. 178. Cinematographer
Vilmos Zsigmond Vilmos Zsigmond ASC (; June 16, 1930 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. His work in cinematography helped shape the look of American movies in the 1970s, making him one of the leading figures in the American New Wav ...
reported that Cimino was hard to work with but extremely talented visually. 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.Kael, p. 35.
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."Foote, John (June 3, 2008)
"Cimino and Oscar"
incontention.com. Retrieved May 9, 2011.
Peter Biskind described Cimino in relation to ''The Deer Hunter'' as "our first, home-grown fascist director, our own
Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...
".


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."


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;Pittman, Jo Ann (September 21, 1999). "Michael Cimino". ''Film Directors''. and February 3, 1952.Garbarino, Steve (March 2002)
"Michael Cimino's Final Cut"
''
Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...
'' (499): pp. 232–235+250-252. Retrieved August 27, 2010.
Many biographies about Cimino, such as the "Michael Cimino" entries in David Thomson's ''
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film'' is a reference book written by film critic David Thomson, originally published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd in 1975 under the title ''A Biographical Dictionary of Cinema.'' Organized by personality, ...
''Thomson, p. 178. and
Ephraim Katz Ephraim Katz (11 March 1932 – 2 August 1992) was a writer, journalist and filmmaker who devoted his life to gathering the information in his book, ''The Film Encyclopedia'', first published in 1979. Biography Katz, born in Tel Aviv, stud ...
's ''Film Encyclopedia'',Katz, Ephraim (1998). ''The Film Encyclopedia'' (3rd ed.). New York, NY: HarperCollins. p. 257. . list his year of birth as 1943.Andrews, p. 245. 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."


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.Bach, p. 169. Some of these details are repeated in reviews of Cimino's films and his official summary biographies. Steven Bach refuted those claims in his book ''Final Cut'': " iminohad 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."


Military service

During the production of ''The Deer Hunter'', Cimino had given co-workers (such as cinematographer
Vilmos Zsigmond Vilmos Zsigmond ASC (; June 16, 1930 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. His work in cinematography helped shape the look of American movies in the 1970s, making him one of the leading figures in the American New Wav ...
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 ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' in which he claimed that he had been "attached to a
Green Beret The green beret was the official headdress of the British Commandos of the Second World War. It is still worn by members of the Royal Marines after passing the Commando Course, and personnel from other units of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF wh ...
medical unit" at the time of the
Tet Offensive The Tet Offensive was a major escalation and one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. It was launched on January 30, 1968 by forces of the Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) against the forces o ...
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. Universal Studios president
Thom Mount Thomas Henderson Mount (born 26 May 1948) is a former President of Universal Pictures. Born in Durham, North Carolina, he studied art at Bard College where he received a BA. He received an MFA in Film and Video at the California Institute of ...
commented at the time, "I know this guy. He was no more a medic in the Green Berets than I'm a
rutabaga Rutabaga (; North American English) or swede (British English and some Commonwealth English) is a root vegetable, a form of ''Brassica napus'' (which also includes rapeseed). Other names include Swedish turnip, neep (Scots), and turnip (Scott ...
." 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.Buckley, Tom (April 1980). "Hollywood's War," '' Harper's''. Cimino's publicist reportedly said that the filmmaker intended to sue Buckley, but Cimino never did.


Filmography


As director


As writer


Awards and nominations


Bibliography

*
Big Jane
'. Paris: Gallimard, 2001. . *
Conversations en miroir
'. Co-authored with Francesca Pollock. Paris: Gallimard, 2003. .


References


Further reading

* * Bach, Steven (September 1, 1999). ''Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists'' (Updated ed.). New York, NY: Newmarket Press. . *Bliss, Michael (1985). ''Martin Scorsese & Michael Cimino'' (Hardcover ed.). Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press Inc. . *Heard, Christopher (2006). ''Mickey Rourke: High and Low''. London, England: Plexus Publishing Ltd. . *Carducci, Mark Patrick (writer); Gallagher, John Andrew (editor) (July 1977). "Michael Cimino". ''Film Directors on Directing'' (Paperback ed.). Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. . * Deeley, Michael (April 7, 2009). ''Blade Runners, Deer Hunters, & Blowing the Bloody Doors Off: My Life in Cult Movies'' (Hardcover ed.). New York, NY: Pegasus Books LLC. . *Elton, Charles (2022). ''Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, and the Price of a Vision'' (1st ed.). New York, NY: Abrams. . * Hickenlooper, George (May 1991). "Michael Cimino: A Final Word". ''Reel Conversations: Candid Interviews with Film's Foremost Directors and Critics'' (1st ed.). Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel. pp. 76–89. . *Heard, Christopher (2006). ''Mickey Rourke: High and Low''. London, England: Plexus Publishing Ltd. . *Kael, Pauline (1989). "The Great White Hope". ''Hooked'' (Hardcover ed.). New York, NY: E.P Dutton. pp. 31–38. . *McGilligan, Patrick (1999). ''Clint: The Life and Legend''. London: Harper Collins. . * McNall, Bruce; D'Antonio, Michael (July 9, 2003). ''Fun While It Lasted: My Rise and Fall In the Land of Fame and Fortune'' (1st ed.). New York, NY: Hyperion. . *Powers, John (writer); Rainer, Peter (editor) (1992). "Michael Cimino: Year of the Dragon". ''Love and Hisses''. San Francisco, CA: Mercury House. pp. 310–320. . * Thomson, David (October 26, 2010). ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Fifth Edition, Completely Updated and Expanded'' (Hardcover ed.). Knopf. . *Thoret, Jean-Baptiste. ''Le Cinéma américain des années 1970'', Éditions de l'Étoile/Cahiers du cinéma, 2006. *Thoret, Jean-Baptiste. ''En route avec Michael Cimino'', large profile and interview published in Cahiers du Cinéma, October 2011. *Adair, Gilbert (1981). ''Hollywood's Vietnam'' (1989 revised ed.). London: Proteus. *Marchetti, Gina (1991). "Ethnicity, the Cinema and Cultural Studies." Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema. Ed. Lester D. Friedman. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. *Marchetti, Gina (1993). "Conclusion: The Postmodern Spectacle of Race and Romance in 'Year of the Dragon.'" Romance and the "Yellow Peril": Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction. Berkeley: University of California Press. *McGee, Patrick (2007). "The Multitude at Heaven's Gate". ''From Shane to Kill Bill''. Malden: Blackwell Publishing. *Wood, Robin (1986). "From Buddies to Lovers" + "Two Films by Michael Cimino". ''Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan and Beyond''. New York. *Woolland, Brian (1995). "Class Frontiers: The View through Heaven's Gate." The Book of Westerns. Ed. Ian Cameron and Douglas Pye. New York: Continuum.


External links

* *
MichaelCimino.Fr
French fan-created website {{DEFAULTSORT:Cimino, Michael 1939 births 2016 deaths Age controversies American film directors of Italian descent Best Directing Academy Award winners Combat medics Directors Guild of America Award winners Film directors from New York City People from Old Westbury, New York Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award United States Army soldiers Yale School of Art alumni United States Army reservists