Michelangelo Antonioni

Started by (kelvin), April 12, 2003, 05:23:31 PM

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Gold Trumpet

I'm a major fan of Antonioni, but I cannot defend Blow-Up the way others can. Great movie in many ways, but it also drifts from the best of Antonioni. I felt Antonioni exploring film genre more with the murder mystery in it. It doesn't have the tone of self examination the way his previous trilogy did. After watching Blow-Up, I was impressed with how Antonioni could mesh his art with a genre. After watching L'Avventura, La Notte and L'Eclisse, I was impressed with how much his art touched a nerve inside of me.

tpfkabi

Quote from: Bethie
Quote from: classical gasOkay, so I just saw 'Blow Up' for the first time tonight.

-don't read any further if you haven't seen the film-

Okay, so it starts out with the photographer and he's on top of his field and everyone wants to work with him and he seems to think that he sees what others don't see; he's a typical artist who thinks that he is more perceptive and intuitive than others.

I have to say quickly, that I found significance in his artist friend saying something about his paintings, about them meaning nothing until he's had time to ananlyze them; I may be way off in that quote, but it was something of that sort.  i can't quite connect this to the whole of the film though.

Then, he develops the pictures of the woman (Redgraves) with the man in the park and he notices (or thinks he does) the gun in the bushes.  He then blows the pictures up in order to get closer to the truth.  Like the further he pursues each aspect of the scene, the closer he'll come to the reality of what happened, however, the more he looks into it (the more he zooms in on the photos) the more blurred everything becomes.

And then the fling with the two girls; here he resumes his role as the dominate artist; but then when he awakes the murder, or his idea that a murder has happened pulls him away from these girls and he's back to where he started.  It is taking his whole attention now, because now his photos are questioning his reality, maybe?

So the movie goes to the park and he sees the body and returns to his apartment and the pictures are gone.  The only one left is the blurry picture that could be a body.  The woman that comes over comments that it looks like one of the painter's abstract paintings, or his blurred reality of what he thinks has happened; now he's not quite sure if he knows what he saw is real.  Could what he saw just be a lie to himself; is he deceiving himself?

So he has to find his friend to go with him to the body, for further proof that his subjective reality is the true reality; that what he saw is what is real; but his friend is too stoned to leave the party or just doesn't want to leave.

Also, the thing about the guitar neck that he discards, any significance in that?  Did he just find that he went through all that trouble to get it from the crowd just for a worthless object (like the propellar?).

And he goes back to the body, which isn't there anymore and he wanders away, and watches the mimes playing tennis.  He goes to pick up their imaginary tennis ball.  Is he accepting their reality, whatever it may be?  Or does he realize that reality is up to interpretation and that these mimes are having fun with the whole idea, as should he.  And then, he dissapears.  hmm....

One final note, I know this has been a long post, but; some of the editing in this film was odd.  Such as the part when he goes back for the body the second time (I think....) and he looks up at the leaves blowing in the wind and then it cuts to the leaves, but when the camera goes down, it's on the photographer; like we weren't looking at his perspective at all, which would be assumed.  Plus, some of the shots at the beginning where he's photographing the couple in the park; some of the shots don't add up, did anyone else notice this?

Please, give me a pity reply, as it's getting lonely in this thread after posting three times in a row...

In the trailer, the voice over says, "Sometimes reality is the strangest fantasy of all."


I saw Blow-Up a month ago.

i actually rented Blow Up yesterday. i listened to the commentary today. the commentarist (i guess this is a word) suggested some of the odd editing was done by Antonioni to note his presence. just like the photographer took pictures and constructed a reality from them, Antonioni does this as a director.
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SiliasRuby

I watched L'Eclisse tonight. God, what an intensely emotional film, s. I watched L'Avventura a while back for the second time and I have changed my view in that I'm getting much more out of it. So, I might buy them both. Samsong wasn't playing when he was giving high props to L'Eclisse. Anyway, ya  :yabbse-thumbup:
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rustinglass

this week i saw "Il Mistero di Oberwald". I loved all the video experiments he does with the colours and everything, it's a very beautiful film, but it was too melodramatic, just too much. I liked Blow-up more.
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life_boy

I'm really looking forward to the theatrical run (and eventual DVD release) of The Passenger.  It has been one of those films I just can't get a hold of for anything.  How do people feel about this film?

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: life_boy on November 06, 2005, 08:18:13 AM
I'm really looking forward to the theatrical run (and eventual DVD release) of The Passenger.  It has been one of those films I just can't get a hold of for anything.  How do people feel about this film?

To many, it is a great film. For many Antonioni enthusiasts though, it marks a descent in Antonioni's career as he explored genre more. I've never seen it. It is one of the few films I'll almost do anything to watch on a decent print. Good chance the DVD will go Criterion. Nicholson owns the rights and has already recorded a commentary of sorts for Criterion's release of L'Avventura.

JG

I saw a bunch of signs for that movie yesterday.  Is there going to be a reprint shown in theaters?

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: JimmyGator on November 06, 2005, 04:17:13 PM
I saw a bunch of signs for that movie yesterday.  Is there going to be a reprint shown in theaters?

Yep. Release limited this year.

MacGuffin

Quote from: JimmyGator on November 06, 2005, 04:17:13 PM
I saw a bunch of signs for that movie yesterday.  Is there going to be a reprint shown in theaters?



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SoNowThen

Schneider?!!!! I had no idea she was in this. Cool. You can always use more petite, busty French girls. In movies, in life... throw a few around the living room, brightens up the day.
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When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Gold Trumpet

Quote from: SoNowThen on November 07, 2005, 02:15:22 AM
Schneider?!!!! I had no idea she was in this. Cool. You can always use more petite, busty French girls. In movies, in life... throw a few around the living room, brightens up the day.

God, you better be happy Thrindle doesn't really dig through all the forums. Made me laugh though.

SiliasRuby

Oh Hell ya. That movie looks and sounds just fabulous can't wait to see it.
The Beatles know Jesus Christ has returned to Earth and is in Los Angeles.

When you are getting fucked by the big corporations remember to use a condom.

There was a FISH in the perkalater!!!

My Collection

A Matter Of Chance

The mother of one of my good friends owns this movie on VHS and I saw it a few years ago. It's really, really, really good, I, personally, liked it more than Blow-Up. This news makes me very happy.

Gold Trumpet

[For Edison - Spoilers!]
When I was writing my small review of Cache, I was acknowledging Antonioni and I forgot I never addressed my views on The Passenger. The Passenger is a glimpse of Antonioni past his prime.

Blow Up began his downfall because he left Italy and lost the personal touch that defined his work. While Blow Up embraced genre, it had redeeming qualities. The filmic eye that made Antonioni unique was still on display in major ways. Though scenery no longer interacted with story like in a painting, as the case was with L'Avventura, Blow Up was graced with a vision that was only capable from Antonioni. Antonioni was still leaps and bounds beyond filmmakers like Jean Pierre Meville. The major problem of The Passenger is that he loses his great filmic eye. Antonioni embraces hand held camera work and new forms of picture distillation to acquire a documentary look, but all those elements are used to make a film that feels like anyone could have made. Only the final scene where Nicholson is killed in the hotel room is a return to greatness for Antonioni.

I think the major problem with the film is how much it relies on dialogue and story. Other visual filmmakers like Robert Bresson faced problems with dialogue and story in their later works. Lancelot of the Lake is a a terrible film because Bresson wasn't able to find a technically sound idea to sustain the length of the film. The film is the fable of Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table. Like other Bresson films, the dialogue is flat and the actors are models within a visual experiment. The problem is that the only thing the film does to distinguish itself is playing with the editing and sound in re-telling a generic story. The film is classroom folly that is only interesting for technicians instead of an actual audience. The technicians notice the structural barriers being broke in classical storytelling. The audience notices the mundane story and the disruptive sound and editing techniques. Bresson isn't able to translate Lancelot of the Lake into a wortwhile experience. Pickpocket is a brutal film technically to watch, but a successful rendering of realism that still holds up to this day.

Antonioni has as much interest in actors and story as Bresson does. The problem is that Antonioni attempts nothing daring with the visuals. We're left wishing the story had more coherence and depth and that Jack Nicholson has a larger motivation to bring something to the table instead of an actor just well aware of the Antonioni model of the past. The model doesn't hold up here for acting because Antonioni brought nothing to the table.

edison

You may want to add a spoiler warning to your critique.