Theo Angelopoulos 1935-2012

Films with visionary ambitions, Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" being a recent example, usually suffer by comparison to Theo Angelopoulos's "Ulysses Gaze" (1995) or his "Landscape In the Mist"(1988), the conclusion of which is one of the most beautiful, melancholy sequences in cinema. In an instance of horrible banality the great Greek director died Tuesday  after being hit by a motorcycle in Piraeus. He was 76. The world of movies is immeasurably diminished.