An investigation into the road accident that led to the death of internationally acclaimed filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos on Tuesday night, has been launched.
According to police reports, the 76-year-old director was hit by an off-duty policeman riding his motorcycle accompanied by his spouse.
The off-duty policeman said on Thursday that the filmmaker had not been wearing a fluorescent bib like the rest of his crew.
He said that Angelopoulos had climbed over a crash barrier to cross the road when the accident occurred at about 7:00 pm.
“All that I saw was a shadow,” the policeman is reported to have said.
“I am sorry for the death of Theodoros Angelopoulos, such an important man, but the accident was not my fault.”
Angelopoulos had been on location with his crew in Drapetsona, near Piraeus, when the accident occurred. It was not clear whether all safety measures had been taken by the production company with regards to Tuesday night’s shoot.
Meanwhile, Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, paid tribute to the award-winning director, saying that he will be “greatly missed” by the film world.
At the same time, the Greek Ministry of Culture announced the establishment of the Theo Angelopoulos International Award. The prize will be awarded on an annual basis as part of the International Thessaloniki Film Festival.
Possessed of a singular style that has long divided critics, Angelopoulos was considered one of the most eminent directors of the second half of the 20th century. Reviewers have likened his films to those of Michelangelo Antonioni and Akira Kurosawa.
He worked with some of the world’s leading actors, among them Marcello Mastroianni, Harvey Keitel, Willem Dafoe, Bruno Ganz and Jeanne Moreau.
His best-known pictures include Eternity and a Day, which won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, in 1998.
In 1995, he displayed a memorable lack of politesse on being awarded the Grand Jury Prize – second prize – at Cannes for Ulysses’ Gaze. The Sydney Morning Herald described what happened after his name was called:
“The director caused a storm when the award was announced, remaining for some seconds in his seat, clearly enraged, his fingertips steepled tightly at his lips. Once on stage, his anger was undisguised. ‘I planned my speech for the Palme d’Or,’ he said, before adding contemptuously, ‘but now I’ve forgotten it.'”
Theodoros Angelopoulos was born in Athens in 1935. As a young man he studied law but, finding it dull, left school and moved to Paris, where he ostensibly studied philosophy but actually spent most of his time at the Cinematheque Francaise.
He attended France’s chief film school, the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques, before returning to Greece, where he worked as a newspaper film critic before embarking on his directorial career.
Mr Angelopoulos’s is survived by his wife and frequent producer, Phoebe Economopoulos, and three daughters.
Theodoros Angelopoulos funeral was scheduled to take place yesterday.
