Arthur Penn, director of the film Bonnie and Clyde and credited with sparking a massive trend in the tone and presentation of movies in that era, has died of congestive heart failure at his home in Manhattan, his son Matthew confirms.
Penn began his career in theater after being discharged from the Army in 1943, and directed his first feature film, The Left-Handed Gun, in 1958. He directed several films into the 60s, but Bonnie and Clyde was considered by far to be his most influential work. Of the film’s impact, The Onion ‘s A.V. Club waxes :
It’s impossible to overstate the influence of Bonnie And Clyde . Borrowing from the French New Wave, Beatty and Penn made a film that bucked Hollywood convention and found and expressed the growing unrest of the 1960s via a tale of Depression-era gangsters finding love on the run. It’s a film of tremendous frankness in its depiction of sex and violence, but also of disarming innocence, and it opened up new possibilities for a school of directors eager to color outside the lines.
Penn remained working until the early part of this decade, in film and later theater and television, including the Law and Order franchise.
