Jonathan Demme, the Oscar-winning director best known for The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia, has died aged 73.
His publicist informed media that he passed away due to complications resulting from cancer. The director first disclosed that he had cancer back in 2015.
Though he had a long and fruitful career as a director of both narrative films and documentaries, it was The Silence of the Lambs – a definite change of pace compared to his quirkier, wittier early films – that really put him on the map. It’s basically been a blueprint for thrillers ever since.
Janet Maslin, the legendary New York Times film critic, nailed the feel of his long oeuvre in her review of Married to the Mob:
Jonathan Demme is the American cinema’s king of amusing artifacts: blinding bric-a-brac, the junkiest of jewelry, costumes so frightening they take your breath away. Mr. Demme may joke, but he’s also capable of suggesting that the very fabric of American life may be woven of such things, and that it takes a merry and adventurous spirit to make the most of them.
RIP.
Source: CNN.
Photo: Getty Images.
