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Sad news, but what a long and productive life.
I grew-up on Lucas and Spielberg and their ilk, but when I discovered Zeffirelli's work it opened a new world for me. I might not have learned to love Shakespeare but for his passionate adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.
Cineastes can call me a blasphemer, but Zeffirelli was as important as Polanski, Scorsese, Coppola and Spielberg (if not more so). He made Shakespeare -- hitherto a dull classroom bore to many people -- accessible and compelling to mass audiences. Jesus of Nazareth remains the finest adaptation of the Gospels (in which Zeffirelli striped away the turgid cliches which had come to despoil the biblical genre — yet retained a high level of production value).
He directed many (if not most of) the best — Olivier, Burton, Richardson, Mason, Bancroft, Gibson, Plummer, Holm, Close, Bonham-Carter, McShane, Bates, Steiger, etc.
And of course he also had impeccable taste in composers (collaborating with with Morricone, Jarre, Rota, Grusin, etc.).
And we forgive him for Endless Love.
“Goodnight sweet prince, and flight of angels sing thee to thy rest”.
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