Michael Cimino: I'm probably not so different than Visconti or Ford (2007)

[@getheroutofthetruck]

I could listen to Cimino talk for hours. It's a shame there's so little of him interviewed.

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

According to Deric Washburn, who was a friend of his and they co-wrote several things, Michael did not like talking about himself, even to him. Michael seemed to be fine talking about other stories, other topics, but he wasn't one for touting his ego in the open, explaining his visions, wishes, dreams or aspirations.

[@DannyG-cv8so]

Heavens Gate was both out of date, and ahead of its time. Much like Billy Friedkins Soucerer.

[@DJ-bj8ku]

What I love about Cimino’s filmmaking is its humanity. The 1970s were a special time for film in that movies explored the inner self of characters, their motivations and aspirations. The Deer Hunter was a work of art. It made you feel and feel deeply and intensely-something movies avoid doing today. For a guy who didn’t know anything about movie-making, he knew how to make great movies. What a legacy.

[@rctubs3593]

Great way to put it. The guy was brilliant

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

Excellent post. Agree completely. The Deer Hunter is a movie about people, not Vietnam. He looked at this little sliver of America life, a very specific sliver: 2nd generation American's working in steel mills in the rust belt, who happen to be hunters, and join the army out of patriot duty, and then how they react after their lives are shattered by it. And he captured and presented that with incredible aplomb.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Well, _T&L_ didn't have any redeeming characters.

[@SalamiKing7]

A legend no matter what others say.

[@NoirFan84]

I love Heaven's Gate. Every frame of that movie is like a painting. The fortune spent on that production & Cimino's obsessive perfectionism is certainly evident there on the screen.

[@johndeagle4389]

It's too bad the screenplay was weak.

[@DannyG-cv8so]

Heavens Gate was both out of date, and ahead of its time. Much like Billy Freidkin s’ Soucerer

[@robsummers8344]

Thunderbolt is a helluva good movie, beautiful to look at, one of Clint’s best roles imho 🤓

[@noelwilson5960]

Unique and Phenomenal. Thank you Michael Cimino for your craftwork. Love the Clint stories...

[@MVerdoux]

What a lovely interview in which you clearly had him at ease. I so wish you'd been able to get him to talk about HEAVEN'S GATE - his greatest film - not about the pain (which he didn't want to revisit) but details about the shoot - the passion and detail he put into the film - how he felt about his cast - and other aspects of the production.

[@KGSMMediaCache]

I don’t usually reply to comments, but thank you for yours. At the time of the interview it was well known that Michael Cimino never wanted to talk about “Heaven’s Gate” so it did not look good going in. Before the interview started I had a few minutes with Mr. Cimino to go over the questions I wanted to ask - not unusual in and of itself, but notably it was the only time this happened in all the interviews I have undertaken - and I specifically inquired about “Heaven’s Gate”. He was adamant that the film was not a subject he wanted to discuss, ostensibly for the reasons I wrote in the intro to the video. I am usually quite persuasive, but it was clear that Mr. Cimino was not going to be drawn on the matter, regardless of the approach taken. In short, “Heaven’s Gate” was off-limits. It was also clear that he could be, if not ‘difficult’ per se, certainly unpredictable, and the last thing we wanted was for him to stop the interview for any reason. It is possible that my long pragmatic conversation after the interview with Joann Carelli in favour of him “telling his side of the story” made an impression. It certainly seemed that way in the moment. As of April 16 2007 they appeared to have no plans to readdress “Heaven’s Gate”, but perhaps a wheel started to finally turn that evening and, while it might of course just be a coincidence, a few years later with the restored version for The Criterion Collection, Michael Cimino did talk about “Heaven’s Gate”.

[@danielmartini3229]

@@KGSMMediaCache thanks for this comprehensive reply. we will never know of course, but it felt like Michael was inviting you to break the rules when he jokingly tempted you to keep asking questions even though you aught to leave ("or be dragged out")

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

@@KGSMMediaCache Thank you so much for this post. Very appreciated.

[@PhilAndersonOutside]

As you obviously know a few years after this Michael did indeed revisit Heaven's Gate, re-editing it for the BluRay release, which was widely praised, with many calling it "a masterpiece after all" (including the NYT who originally panned it. As well as the BBC). Cimino did appear in I believe a forum after it's release and even then didn't talk much about it. I seem to recall him saying no edit of the film was perfect, or ever would be, but he seemed quite at peace with where it stood. I firmly believe 100 years from now it will be viewed as one of the most misunderstood works in entertainment history, and regarded as a real travesty that Cimino's career making director driven, thought provoking epic films was halted by time (and money, and many other reasons). It was obviously his calling, and it's very likely in a world with more patience and perhaps better planned budgets, he could have made another half-dozen masterpieces in this artistic realm. You see slices of it in his later works, though none of course were produced in anything close to the same manner.

[@alingard1]

Fantastic interview

[@jonboz7585]

Fascinating interview. Thanks for sharing this wonderful discussion.

[@ninfilms]

Great interview

[@JoeMama-tl4tr]

Michael was and always will be a cinematic genius. His trademark was his beautiful cinematography and emotional stories. Deer Hunter and Heavens Gate are some of the most beautiful films ever made just works of art

[@TeddyOketo]

Has anybody heard when his Documentary will be shown in the U.S.

[@zacmccomb4781]

turned himself into a k pop star. respect.

[@sausage_and_peppers]

LoL

[@gabriofonda8181]

I was thinking,you said it 🤭

[@soda989]

man's not hot

[@DJ-bj8ku]

What I love about Cimino’s filmmaking is its humanity. The 1970s were a special time for film in that movies explored the inner self of characters, their motivations and aspirations. The Deer Hunter was a work of art. It made you feel and feel deeply and intensely-something movies avoid doing today. For a guy who didn’t know anything about movie-making, he knew how to make great movies. What a legacy.

[@leoquesto9183]

Before K Pop spread to the west. R.I.P., Cimino.

[@johndeagle4389]

The first feature Malpaso Productions produced was Hang 'Em High.

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

Leonard Freeman Productions

[@knownpleasures]

@@RideAcrossTheRiverjoint production between Malpaso and Leonard Freeman productions

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@knownpleasures Producer: Leonard Freeman

[@RexColt]

Thanks for the upload

[@leoquesto9183]

I’m pretty sure that’s my aunt Teresa moonlighting as an a-list director. No, seriously, he’s amazing. This is a fun interview.

[@Ivan94film]

A legend.

[@nigelinasia2088]

Joanna is the unsung hero in all this.

[@TomRossFilmmaker]

A really insightful interview but he really glosses over the start of his career .. He says that he just wrote a script that Clint Eastwood loved after a summer of filming models as a 'kid' (is this late teens or early twenties?). But later on he says that he was represented by the William Morris agency at the same time.. Well you have to have a bit of a track record to be represented by the William Morris agency so was he a photographer photographing the models during that summer or was he a director of fashion films? Basically my point is that he has to have had a bit of a buzz already before he sent the script to Clint Eastwood and that rather undermines the whole "I was a kid hat just wrote a script that got lucky" schtick. Its' these self mythologising stories ( see also Steven Spielberg jumping off a ride at Universal and sneaking into a studio to start directing) which don't add up when you think about it realistically, that create a false impression of the movie industry and is not really that helpful. You try and write a script and send it to Clint Eastwood and see how far you get!

[@DJ-bj8ku]

There’s a lot of self-mythologizing in Hollywood, after all guys like Cimino are storytellers of fiction and trade in fantasy. Don’t be too hard on him.

[@iammraat3059]

Lovely

[@charlieohagan6750]

Cinematography as good in this movie as any!

[@robertmier2217]

Fabulist

[@charlieohagan6750]

Watched Heaven’s Gate a good movie 🎥 it had all the ingredients, but hit an unusual lull. It certainly tells an epic story! It doesn’t deserve the bomb label! Micheal is a talented director and real person, Anti - Hollywood type which is a great thing. I enjoyed Year of the Dragon another under rated movie. Hollywood wants the same garbage 🗑️ that’s Michael’s downfall not personal failings.

[@oophorror2251]

Never understood why Clint and Arnold never rescued Cimino and Milius. They both worked with some hacks at times.

[@Johnconno]

That's Phil Spector.

[@paulsauer3724]

It’s apparent that Cimino does not have a good memory because he’s got several facts wrong about Clint. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot was not the first movie that Clint’s Company Malpaso had produced. It was formed in 1968 and had already produced a number of films including Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, High Plains Drifter, Play Misty for Me and The Beguiled by that point. Also Clint did not move to Warner Bros until early 1975. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot had already come out in 1974. Clint was still based at Universal at the time of this meeting. So I’m guessing that the meeting was at Universal , not Warner Bros. Cimino clearly did not have his facts straight.

[@DJ-bj8ku]

There’s a lot of self-mythologizing in Hollywood, after all guys like Cimino are storytellers of fiction and trade in fantasy. Don’t be too hard on him.

[@djd620]

It's not Cimino's memory. The guy was a pathological liar. He consistently lied about everything from his age to his resume. He didn't write The Deer Hunter. Deric Washburn did. But he's a classic narcissist whose own arrogance, ego, and hubris brought him down. That said, he had a great eye but was a lousy writer. Heaven's Gate might be beautiful to look at, but it's a chore to listen to. His best film was Thunderbolt & Lightfoot.

[@sausage_and_peppers]

​@@djd620 lol he wrote thunderbolt and lightfoot, heavens gate and co-wrote the deer hunter, year of the dragon plus he modified the Sicilian, Desperate Hours and Sunchaser.

[@djd620]

@@sausage_and_peppers He didn't write The Deer Hunter. Year of the Dragon has an awful script but is well directed. He had a great eye and a tin ear for dialogue. His best overall was T & L. Just my opinion.

[@sausage_and_peppers]

@@djd620 he did write the deer hunter along with Washburn either you like it or not and Year of the Dragon is a masterpiece. Your opinion is just 💩

[@TheRubberStudiosASMR]

50% of what he says is probably true

[@laurencewhite4809]

20%

[@undrsonr5316]

@@laurencewhite4809 come on! 19,6%

[@AW-kr9fl]

It’s kinda funny how he and Mickey Rourke who he worked with many times both ended up getting addicted to bizarre plastic surgery

[@DMalltheway]

Rourke always kept in touch with Cimino until his death.

[@kellykasparek8150]

just to hear him say Sam Peckinpah.......

[@antomin1709]

TB&LF was da shit...YO

[@danielmartini3229]

he reminds me of Andy Warhol

[@zacharyantle7940]

Him getting all the work done is so fascinating. Great director, but Christ he looks awful here. I mean I can understand wanting to look youthful but this is like Jocelyn Wildenstein levels of plastic surgery… didn’t he go into hiding for a long time and reappear like this after a while? And then weren’t there rumors he was a body double and the “real” Cimino dies or something? 😂

[@mangomation3945]

Probably a combo of the work, the weight loss, and the fact that Cimino was by this time transgender but closeted. Always chasing a more feminine look but unable to fully go for it due to fear of ridicule. That's my guess at least as to why Cimino looked like this later in life - was also said by relatives to have strongly resembled his mother after the 2000s.

[@zacharyantle7940]

@@mangomation3945 he was probably trans? Thought that was just a rumor?

[@mangomation3945]

@@zacharyantle7940 It was a rumour for the longest time, but it was all but confirmed recently. Someone did some digging and found that one of the very few people who wrote a tribute on Cimino's obituary page happened to be a trans woman who ran a wig shop in the LA area primarily serving transgender individuals. She was found and interviewed, and revealed that Cimino had indeed visited the store for private appointments under the name 'Nikki', which went on for years in the early 2000s. Eventually, she found out about Cimino's true identity, and although she didn't intend to tell a soul, Cimino ghosted her our of fear and went fully back into the closet as the rumours were mounting around that time, and the ridicule was growing greater and greater.

[@roccoz2231]

It was more of a gradual process. For years he had his pudgy, Italian Jon Lovitz look. Then in the mid-90s he lost a bunch of weight, started wearing wigs and plucking his eyebrows, and got some work done on his face. He actually looks somewhat "normal" in this interview (2007). Look up the video "My name is Cimino" from 2015. Michael eventually became a human wax figure with an overdone facelift, lip injections and Jackie O sunglasses.

[@sausage_and_peppers]

​@@mangomation3945 It was a rumor and Cimino himself denied it many times. I don't believe in that theory at all. He lost weight and didn't want to look old so that's why the plastic surgery on his face. Journalists invented that genre stuff to bother him. And that lady you mentioned could be just bs too.

[@oscartango2348]

One of the greatest cinematographers of all time, but was not a good director.

[@laurencewhite4809]

You cant trust anything this guy says. Cimino for years lied about his year of birth in order to portray himself as this child prodigy. Even in this video he paints himself as "this kid" when he worked with Clint. In reality he was only 9 years younger than Clint. He wasn't "this kid", he was 34 when he made Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

[@sausage_and_peppers]

True too

[@silversnail1413]

That's part of what makes him fascinating though. Artists are temperamental and strange and he came from a period before social media where you could actually sort of build a mystique around yourself. I wouldn't take anything he says as gospel either but it's still interesting to hear him spin his yarns.

[@DJ-bj8ku]

It was an off the cuff remark. He wasn’t being literal. At the time, Clint was a giant in the industry and Cimino was just trying break in. That’s what he meant.

[@kingfisher9553]

Yeah, my literary hero, Tennessee Wiliams, also lied out his ass to win awards or get the proper attention. Don't care.

[@boogerie]

Maybe. But you're more like Tommy Wiseau with a blank check

[@silversnail1413]

Cimino's version of The Room would have been something to see.

[@boogerie]

@@silversnail1413 and could've sunk another major studio

[@silversnail1413]

@@boogerie Good. Movie studios are slave plantations run by parasites. They should all go six feet under and the cinema will be back in the hands of those who value it instead of scumbags who whore it out for another addition on their mansion and the opportunity to molest young actresses on the casting couch.

[@tballstaedt7807]

Whatever legacy Cimino ever had, it will be haunted by Heaven's Gate and its comical lack of screenplay.

[@silversnail1413]

Screenplays are overrated. Heaven's Gate is more like a painting. It's about feeling and imagery rather than conventional narrative. Go watch another bland Aaron Sorkin picture.

[@johndeagle4389]

Cimino was an overrated filmmaker.

[@Sdutt_author]

False.

[@johndeagle4389]

@@Sdutt_author The Sicilian was terrible.

[@silversnail1413]

He probably got shit on more than any other American filmmaker in his career and was pretty much a pariah in the industry. How does that make him overrated? Spielberg is overrated, Cimino is just hit or miss and sadly the disaster of Heaven's Gate cut short a lot of his future opportunities so he was never really able to flex his cinematic muscles again after that.

[@johndeagle4389]

@@silversnail1413 Thank God Heaven's Gate cut short his future opportunities. He could have bankrupted another studio.

[@johndeagle4389]

@@silversnail1413 You are right about one thing. Cimino is not overrated. He only directed two critically acclaimed films Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and the Deer Hunter.

[@sausage_and_peppers]

Do you have more material with Cimino? Thanks for uploading this.