Saturday 5 April 2014

Top 10 Tragic Deaths of Directors

All these deaths are tragic, so you can ignore the fact they're ranked. The deciders of this list are: method of death, impact on cinema, impact they could of had on cinema, and age of death. If you can think of anyone I have missed, please mention them in the comments.
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10


Jean Eustache
Director of the French film "The Mother and the Whore", shot himself in his apartment at the age of 42 (in 1981).
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9


Forough Farrokhzad
Director of the Iranian docu-film 'The House is Black'. She didn't get leprosy, but instead swerved her car to avoid a school bus, into a stone wall. She died in hospital at the age of 32 (in 1967).
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8


Tony Scott
Ridley Scott's brother, directed 'True Romance' and 'Top Gun'. At the age 63, he jumped off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California (in 2012).
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7


Michael Reeves
Director of 'The Witchfinder General'. He got depressed soon after release, took a handful of anti-depressants and died afterwards aged 25 (in 1969).
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6


Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Director of the magnificent 'Berlin Alexanderplatz' mini-series and 'Fox and his Friends'. He made 40 films before overdosing on cocaine and sleeping pills aged 37 (in 1982).
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5


Mario Monicelli
Directed 'The Great War' and 'Big Deal on Madonna Street'. Known most in his home country Italy. Made films until his death in 2010, when doctors told him he had prostate cancer. A few days later he jumped from his hospital window and died at the age of 95.
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4


Larisa Shepitko
Directed 'The Ascent'. She was up-and-coming, making the great film 'The Ascent' so early in her career. She died in a car crash with 4 of her camera crew aged 41 (in 1979).
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3


Pier Paolo Pasolini
Directed 'Accatone', 'The Decamaron' and 'Salo'. Probably the most infamous director on this list for directing 'Salo', which appears high on most people's "Most Disturbing Films Lists" and is definitely my number 1. A year after the release of 'Salo' (in 1975), aged 53 he was beaten to death on a beach in Rome. No-one is sure of why or who. His political views? his homosexuality? An actor from 'Salo' getting revenge?
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2


Jean Vigo
Directed the wonderful French film 'L'Atalante' and 'Zero for Conduct'. Died of tuberculosis aged 29 (in 1934). He only made those two feature length films, but is a crucial part of French cinematic history.
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1


Sadao Yamanaka
Director of 'Humanity and Paper Balloons'. Someone you probably haven't heard of, partially because only three of his films have survived. Two of those films are considered some of Japan's finest. So what happened? His government didn't like his films, so they sent him to the front lines on the same day as the premier of 'Humanity and Paper Balloons' and he died on the battlefield at the age of 28 (in 1938). 

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