He dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on,[1] and Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely respected filmmakers in the world.

He quickly established a characteristic style, marked by slow, episodic and ambiguous narrative structures as well as long takes (The Travelling Players, for example, consists of only 80 shots in about four hours of film).

His regular collaborators include the cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis, the screenwriter Tonino Guerra and the composer Eleni Karaindrou.

Angelopoulos was considered by British film critics Derek Malcolm[3] and David Thomson[4] as one of the world's greatest directors.

Famous film directors including Werner Herzog[11] Emir Kusturica,[12] Akira Kurosawa,[13][14][15] Ingmar Bergman,[16] Wim Wenders,[17] Dušan Makavejev,[18] William Friedkin,[19] Manoel de Oliveira,[20] Michelangelo Antonioni among others,[21] were also admirers of his works.

While critics have speculated on how he developed his style, Angelopoulos made clear in one interview that "The only specific influences I acknowledge are Orson Welles for his use of plan-sequence and deep focus, and Mizoguchi, for his use of time and off-camera space.

[26] Angelopoulos died late on Tuesday, 24 January 2012, several hours after being involved in a crash while shooting his latest film, The Other Sea in Athens.

[27] On that evening, the filmmaker had been with his crew in the area of Drapetsona, near Piraeus when he was hit by a motorcycle, which unconfirmed reports suggested was ridden by an off-duty police officer.