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Blowup (1966)
 
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Directed
by:
Michelangelo
Antonioni |
COUNTRY
Italy/United
Kingdom |
GENRE
Drama |
NORWEGIAN
TITLE
Blowup |
RUNNING
TIME
109
minutes |
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Produced
by:
Pierre Rouve
Carlo Ponti |
Written
by (based on a story by Julio Cortazar):
Michelangelo
Antonioni
Tonino Guerra
Edward Bond |
Review
Seen in retrospect,
this artsy, wonderfully photographed pop-life mystery seems out of place
– almost caught in a vacuum. Remarkably, this is both one its greatest
strengths and weaknesses as the world presented to us by a
simultaneously
charmed and pessimistic Antonioni (in his first non-Italian feature)
makes for a voyage through more or less surrealistic scenes packed with
more or less significant imagery. As a document of London's 1966 fashion
scene, Blowup seems dated and staged (the "club" scene
including the Yardbirds is anything but naturally vibrant), and the
acting is as erratically stylized as the nature of most of the main
characters. Still, these are elements that make Blowup the joyous
journey it is. As with our protagonist, we let ourselves be seduced from
one segment to another, relishing a set of values and motivations
that are arguably alien to us. And when being in the hands of the
fascinating Hemmings character, all his quests and wanderings seem
entrancing.
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