American filmmaker Peter Boktanovich, the leader of the “New Hollywood” movement and director of “The Last Screening”, has died at the age of 82, his agency announced Thursday.
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Peter Bogdanovich, who entered the world of cinema as a critic, made his directorial debut with “The Target” in the 1950s, before writing his song for the United States in “The Last Session” (1971).
Set in a small town in Texas during difficult times, the film won eight Oscars and two Statues. Some viewers have compared it to Orson Welles’ masterpiece “Citizen Kane”.
“I am just happy to be free. He was a great and wonderful artist. Famous director Francis Ford Coppola has said that he will never forget the first scene of ‘The Last Screening’.
“I remember the ending (screening), the audience stood up and applauded around me for at least 15 minutes … let them relax forever and enjoy the inspiring moment. Our applause lasted forever,” the filmmaker added in a statement.
After other successes in the early 1970s, “Shall we back up, Doctor?” With Barbara Streisand and “Cotton Candy”, Peter Boktanovich’s career began to slide with a series of failures.
The director had an affair with model Dorothy Stratton, who co-starred with Audrey Hepburn in killing her husband shortly before the release of “And Everybody Laugh”.
Peter Boktanovich, who married Dorothy Stratton’s estranged sister and then ruined himself, left Los Angeles and moved to New York, where he again became a film critic.
Towards the end of his career, he starred in cinema and television, most notably as a DJ in Tony Soprano’s summary or Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” in the series “The Sopranos”.
He was born in 1939 in Kingston, New York. The cause of his death was not immediately clear.
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro tweeted, “He’s a dear friend and hero of cinema,” congratulating the creator of the “masterpieces” and “very sweet.”
