Theo Angelopoulos has been killed in a road accident, aged 76. The Greek director was among the most revered of his country's film industry since starting his career in 1967, following the coup that started the Greek Military DICtatorship at the time - the ensuing movies understandably taking a serious politic slant. In 1995 he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his film 'Ulysses' Gaze' which starred American actor Harvey Keitel, three years on from that he took the prestigious festival's biggest prize of them all by taking the Palme D'Or for his picture 'Eternity And A Day,' which starred Swiss actor Bruno Ganz
The UK's Daily Telegraph reports that police had confirmed that Angelopoulos had suffered severe head injuries and died at a hospital; he was hit whilst crossing a road by a motorcycle near the Greek capital Athens' main port of Piraeus. The driver was also injured and was later identified as an off-duty police officer.
Angelopoulos was a retiring character, rarely giving interviews and focusing instead on his craft; it was something he was still prolifically working on as well, with the accident coming at a time when the filmmaker was progressing with his latest work 'The Other Sea,' the third of an unofficial trilogy after 2004's 'The Weeping Meadow' and 2009's 'The Dust Of Time.'