Terrible news in the middle of the Cannes Film Festival 2022. The Greek composer of blade runner and chariots of fireVangelis Papathanassiou, nicknamed Vangelis, has died at the age of 79, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Thursday evening, AFP reports.
“Vangelis Papathanassiou is no longer with us., tweeted the Prime Minister. “The music world has lost (artist) international Vangelis“, adds his tweet. A pioneer of electronic music, this autodidact had found his inspiration in space exploration, nature, futuristic architecture, the New Testament and the student movement of May 1968.
His soundtrack for The Chariots of Fire was Oscar-winning against the music by John Williams made for the first Indiana Jones film in 1982.”It is with great sadness that we announce that the great Greek Vangelis Papathanassiou passed away late on Tuesday 17th May.“, also announced his lawyer quoted Thursday by the Greek news agency ANA.
According to several Greek media, Vangelis died of the coronavirus in France where he shared his time with London and Athens. Mr. Mitsotakis also pointed out that Vangelis’ middle name was Ulysses. “For us Greeks, this means that he began his great journey on the chariots of Fire. From there, he will always send us his notes“, tweeted Mr. Mitsotakis again.
Among the dozen soundtracks he has composed are those for the film by Costa-Gavras, Missing, Blight Moons by Roman Polanski and Alexander by Oliver Stone.
He had also left his mark at the Cannes Film Festival since he had been a member of the jury in 1991 with a president of the jury he knew well, the director Roman Polanski. The 1991 jury also included actress Whoopi Goldberg and director Jean-Paul Rappeneau. That year is Barton Fink of Joel Coen who had won the Palme d’Or.