Archive of films Heaven's Gate / Heaven's Gate

USA
1980, 216 min

Section: Out of the Past
Year: 2013

Synopsis

The director-blessed, digitally restored version of the legendary four-hour anti-Western, whose scandalous failure tolled the death knell for United Artists and ruined its creator’s career. Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, and Isabelle Huppert are the three charismatic apices of a love triangle that forms in late 19th-century Wyoming as wealthy cattle barons hatch a devilish plot to butcher over 100 European immigrants. Similar to Coppola with Apocalypse Now and Scorsese with the retro musical New York, New York, fast-rising helmer Cimino got himself into a situation in which his dogged effort to implement his creative vision at any price, and regardless of the actual costs, vaguely resembled a deranged fantasy. The creator of The Deer Hunter was the Erich von Stroheim of his day, a time that favored Lucas-esque pragmatism. His ill-fated magnum opus – essential to every cinephile’s education – has amassed a variety of unforgettable labels in the 30 years since its creation: "opium vision of American bloodshed,” "melancholy giant,” "uncommercial monster” – the list goes on.…

About the director

Michael Cimino (b. 1939, New York) studied art, architecture, and art history. Although he first worked in advertising, in 1971 he moved to Los Angeles to begin a career as a screenwriter. Thanks to Clint Eastwood he gave his debut with the crime comedy Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974). The solid success of this debut helped Cimino put through the first of his purely authorial projects, the legendary The Deer Hunter (1978). Its popular and critical success was crowned by the conferral of five Academy Awards, two for the filmmaker himself (direction and picture). After Heaven’s Gate, one of the saddest chapters in the history of American moviemaking, Cimino was unable to resuscitate his career in a manner commensurate with his talent. Later pictures include Year of the Dragon (1985), The Sicilian (1987), the Bogart remake Desperate Hours (1990), and the crime film The Sunchaser (1996).

Contacts

Park Circus Group
15 Woodside Crescent, G37UL, Glasgow
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 141 332 2175
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.parkcircus.com

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About the film

Color, DCP

Section:	Out of the Past

Director:	Michael Cimino
Screenplay:	Michael Cimino
Dir. of Photography:	Vilmos Zsigmond
Music:	David Mansfield
Editor:	Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald Greenberg, William Reynolds, Tom Rolf
Producer:	Joann Carelli
Production:	Partisan Productions
Cast:	Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Isabelle Huppert
Contact:	Park Circus Group