**Peter Bogdanovich (1939-2022)** was an acclaimed American director, screenwriter, critic, and film historian, a key figure of the New Hollywood era of the 1970s.

Following a career as a critic and scholar, he made his directorial debut with *Targets* (1968). His masterpiece is **The Last Picture Show** (1971), a black-and-white film that captures the melancholy of small-town America and the loss of innocence, earning eight Academy Award nominations. He demonstrated versatility with the comedy *What's Up, Doc?* (1972), an homage to screwball comedies, and the dramatic **Paper Moon** (1973), also in black and white, featuring Tatum O'Neal's acclaimed performance.

His style was distinguished by a profound respect for classical cinema, often evident in his use of black and white and his homage to traditional genres (comedy, western, noir). Despite subsequent fluctuating successes, his golden age left a lasting imprint on American cinema.