Celebrities in Locarno: director John Landis

John Landis is a prominent guest at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. He has made a name for himself as a director, screenwriter and actor. He is known for countless films, for example the road musical “The Blues Brothers” (1980). Less known, but no less important, is that Landis is behind the video clip for Michael Jackson’s «Thriller» (1983); In the wake of Landis’ horror film “An American Werewolf in London” (1981), Jackson Landis had the clip staged as a cinematic short.

In the run-up to the honorary leopard award, Landis said that cinema had “changed a lot” since the 1970s: “Believe it or not, The Blues Brothers is the last film to be produced in an old-style studio”, he told the media.