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Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007)



Lucretius, who was certainly one of the greatest poets who ever lived, once said, "Nothing appears as it should in a world where nothing is certain. The only thing certain is the existence of a secret violence that makes everything uncertain." Think about this for a moment. What Lucretius said of his time is still a disturbing reality, for it seems to me that this uncertainty is very much part of our own time. But this is unquestionably a philosophical matter. Now you really don't expect me to resolve such problems or propose any solutions? Inasmuch as I am the product of a middle-class society, and am preoccupied with making middle-class dramas, I am not equipped to do so. The middle class doesn't give me the means with which to resolve any middle-class problems. That's why I confine myself to pointing out existing problems without proposing any solutions. I think it is equally important to point out the problems as it is to propose solutions.

Filmography

Features
Cronaca di un amore AKA Story of a Love Affair (1950)
La signora senza camelie AKA The Lady Without Camelias (1953)
I vinti AKA The Vanquished (1953)
Le amiche AKA The Girl Friends (1955)
Il grido AKA The Cry (1957)
L'avventura (1960)
La notte (1961)
L'eclisse (1962)
Il deserto rosso AKA Red Desert (1964)
Blowup (1966)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
Chung Kuo, Cina [documentary] (1972)
Professione: reporter AKA The Passenger (1975)
Il mistero di Oberwald AKA The Mystery of Oberwald (1981)
Identificazione di una donna AKA Identification of a Woman (1982)
Al di la delle nuvole AKA Beyond the Clouds (1995)

Shorts
"Gente del Po" AKA "People of the Po Valley" (1943)
"Roma-Montevideo" (1948)
"Oltre l'oblio" (1948)
"N.U." AKA "Nettezza urbana" AKA "Dustmen" (1948)
"Superstizione" AKA "Superstition" (1949)
"Sette canne, un vestito" AKA "Seven Reeds, One Suit" (1949)
"Ragazze in bianco" AKA "Girls in White" (1949)
"Bomarzo" (1949)
"L'amorosa menzogna" AKA "Lies of Love" (1949)
"La villa dei mostri / The Villa of Monsters[/b] (1950)
"La funivia del faloria" AKA "The Funicular of Mount Faloria" (1950)
"Tentato suicido" AKA "When Love Fails" [segment from L'amore in citta AKA Love in the City] (1953)
"Il provino" {segment from I tre volti AKA The Three Faces of a Woman] (1965)
"Inserto girato a Lisca Blanca" (1983)
"Kumbha Mela" (1989)
"Roma" [segment from 12 registi per 12 citta ] (1989)
"Noto, Mandorli, Vulcano, Stromboli, Carnevale" AKA "Volcanoes and Carnival" (1993)
"Sicilia" (1997)
"Lo sguardo di Michelangelo" AKA "Michelangelo Eye to Eye" (2004)
"Il filo pericoloso delle cose" AKA "The Dangerous Thread of Things" [segment from Eros] (2004)

Books
That Bowling Alley on the Tiber: Tales of a Director by Michelangelo Antonioni (1987)
Unfinished Business: Screenplays, Scenarios, and Ideas by Michelangelo Antonioni (1998)
The Architecture of Vision: Writings and Interviews on Cinema by Michelangelo Antonioni and Marga Cottino-Jones, ed. (2007)

Antonioni by Ian Cameron and Robin Wood (1971)
Focus on Blow-up by Roy Huss, ed. (1972)
Antonioni, or, The Surface of the World by Seymour Chatman (1985)
Antonioni by Sam Rohdie (1990)
Antonioni: The Poet of Images by William Arrowsmith, ed. Ted Perry (1995)
The Films of Michelangelo Antonioni by Peter Brunette (1998)
My Time with Antonioni by Wim Wenders (2000)
Michelangelo Antonioni: The Complete Films by Seymour Chatman (2004)
Michelangelo Antonioni: Interviews by Bert Cardullo, ed. (2008)
Antonioni's Blow-Up by Philippe Garner (2011)
Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue: Eight Reflections on Cinema by Murray Pomerance (2011)
Antonioni: Centenary Essays by Laura Rascaroli & John David Rhodes, eds. (2011)

Internet Resources
Archivo Antonioni
"Entretien" by Michelangelo Antonioni, Cahiers du cinema (1960)
1965 interview with Pierre Billard, Cinema
1967 interview with Curtis Pepper, Playboy
1969 interview with Charles Thomas Samuels
1969 interview with Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"A Vicious Motive, Despicable Tricks: A Criticism of M. Antonioni's Anti-China Film China", Peking Review (1974)
1983 interview with Gideon Bachmann, Film Quarterly
"A Cinema of Uncertainty" by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader (1993)
"Antonioni's The Passenger as Lacanian Text" by Jack Turner, Other Voices (1999)
"Michelangelo Antonioni: Passenger" by Derek Malcolm, The Guardian (2000)
"The Gaze of Antonioni" by Jonathan Rosenbaum (2004)
"Michelangelo and I" by Enrica Antonioni (2004)
"Trust me. I am not God, but I am Antonioni", by Peter Bowles, The Guardian (2005)
"Antonioni's Nothingness and Beauty" by Stephen Holden, The New York Times (2006)
"Michelangelo Antonioni: Centenary of a Forgotten Giant" by Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (2012)
"Rockefeller's Melancholy" by Luc Moullet, La Furia Umana (2012)
"'When Ordinary Seeing Fails': Reclaiming the Art of Documentary in Mechelangelo Antonioni's 1972 China Film Chung Kuo" by Alice Xiang, Senses of Cinema (2013)
"Chasing the Desert: An Interview with Enrica Fico on Her Work with Michelangelo Antonioni", by Eleonora Raspi, Senses of Cinema (2016)
"The Emotional Historiography of Michelangelo Antonioni's L'eclisse", by Richard Read, Screening the Past (2016)
"The Disturbing Relevance of 'Blow-Up'" by Elena Lazic, Movie Mezzanine (2016)
"Forgotten Masterpiece: Antonioni's Travelogue From China" by J. Hoberman, The New York Times (2017)
"Journey to the East" by Nick Pinkerton, Artforum (2018)

Forum Discussions
Michelangelo Antonioni 1912-2007
I Vinti (Antonioni)
BD 17-18 La signora senza camelie & Le amiche
817 Le amiche
Le Cri / Il Grido (Antonioni)
82 Il grido
98 L'avventura
61 / BD 47 La notte
678 La notte
278 L'eclisse
Red Desert (Antonioni, 1964)
522 Red Desert
866 Blow-Up
Zabriskie Point
49 The Passenger
The Passenger
Identification of a Woman (Antonioni)
585 Identification of a Woman
Il filo pericoloso delle cose (Antonioni, 2004)

justeleblanc wrote:I'm not sure if this is where I should post this message, but I'm a film student who is on the waiting list for this Italian cinema class, and it looks like I will not be able to take this class... how terrible. I was interested in taking it because I've heard a lot about Antonioni and I've never seen any of his films. Do you guys know of which films to watch first and maybe also what critical books to read? I spoke to the TA in hopes that maybe he'd give me an extra syllabus, but both he and the professor seem rather unresponsive.

They didn't eve give you a syllabus? Wow! Since when did college professors stop being interested in self-motivated students?

Anyhoo, perhaps the best beginner's introduction to Antonioni -- and Italian film history in general -- is Scorsese's excellent documentary My Voyage to Italy. It's mainly about the Neo-Realist movement, but it ends with a nice discussion of Antonioni's trilogy (L'avventura, La notte, and L'eclisse). It's available on DVD, and your college/uni really ought to have it available in its media center.

By the way, the trilogy is probably the best place to start, as L'Avventura and L'eclisse are available on Criterion DVDs, with lots of nice extras. My own personal favorite of Antonioni's films (and arguably his best known) is the English-language Blowup. But you can't go wrong by starting with any of those four films.

Thanks, it looks like I'll start with L'avventura then listen to the commentary. Then I'll probably jump to Blowup.

The joke is that they mentioned they would show Antonioni in the course description, but after looking at the syllabus (he just didn't have any extra copies at the time) they actually wont be showing Antonioni. But I'll have my own private screenings on my friends huge ass TV.

justeleblanc wrote:Thanks, it looks like I'll start with L'avventura then listen to the commentary. Then I'll probably jump to Blowup.

Sounds like a good plan. By the way, don't bother listening to the commentary track on Blowup. It's a waste of time.

I recently decided to check Antonioni out for the first time too. The L'avventura Criterion disc is very good. The film is wonderful and the commentary is also great. He offers a very good formal analysis of the work, which is probably something you are looking for as a film student. I haven't watched much on the second disc but I can only assume it's good. The essays read by Nicholson are pretty lengthy, though I might have preferred to have them in print (a lot of the first one is in the booklet.)

I recently got L'eclisse as a follow-up but haven't watched it yet.

blindside8zao wrote:I recently got L'eclisse as a follow-up but haven't watched it yet.

La notte! La notte! If you're going to watch the trilogy, I think it's best to see them in order, because there is a logical progression. And more of a sense of La Vitti as the chameleon at the heart of it all.

I may be in the minority, but I love La notte. The OOP Image DVD is barebones and of fair quality, but worth seeking out. A caveat to watching Scorsese's Il mi viaggio -- he gives away the ending of L'eclisse (and other films). Not so much a primer as a reflection.

I actually saw La notte first, and Vitti's was the role that wowed me. I love that scene with the compact on the checker board floor. She is a little bit of magic; you just want to crawl into that dress with her and slide, slide, slide. Did I say that out loud?

I'm going to wait til criterion releases La notte to spend the money. I think there's a consensus it will be released this year? I have enough new Criterions to last me until later this year. Maybe I should shelf it and watch other stuff til La notte comes out?

Everything 'clicked' for me with Blow Up, which laid the groundwork for Red Desert. Notwithstanding the always unappealing presence of Richard Harris, Red Desert is an incredibly rich work of art but might be a bit daunting if it's the first Antonioni film you see.

L'eclisse is my favorite, followed by Cronica di un amore, Red Desert, Blowup and L'avventura. Zabriskie Point is a magnificent failure.

David Ehrenstein wrote:L'Eclisse is my favorite, followed by Cronica di un Amore, Red Desert, Blow-Up and L'Avventura. Zabriskie Point is a magnificent failure.

I really had a difficult time with Cronica di un Amore - there's something highly unsettling about the film and Antonioni's strict formalism isn't yet present to make it go down easier. I need to watch it again at some point.

Actually Cronica is Antonioni at his most formal. read what Noel Burch has to say abou it in Theory of Film Practice.

I find Lucia Bose truly enchanting in the film -- remindful in some ways of Maria Casares in Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne. The scene where she passes through a chic salon while a fashion show is in progress is quite something.

I'll butt in again and say while I sang the heady praises of La notte (Monica Vitti), I didn't also give a shout-out (apropos) to Il grido. I was really moved by this film; and I think the roadside backdrop prefigures Deserto rosso much as the man/woman/child motif is revisited there. Cochran holds the screen at all times--as we are intrigued by his brute physicality, his not-quite-Italian ethnic air, his brooding manhood. I agree, the Kino DVD is piss-poor, but I bought it up immediately after Netflixing the film a few years back. Hopefully Criterion will see fit to give us a restored disc. And I'm still waiting on a new La notte.

I heard Eros is a good place to start. I'm glad I didn't shelf L'eclisse way back then, though. Still waiting on La notte.

As a major fan of Antonioni, I am pained to say that Eros is not a good place to start so much as it is a good place to avoid at all costs. Unless you are trying to work your way up in quality, that is.

To be fair, the other two entries are worthwhile (especially if you're an Alan Arkin fan). Age, stroke, or just having lost 'it', there is no shortage of legitimate excuses, but Antonioni's entry is an embaressment

I recently attended the Antonioni retrospective they had here in Melbourne, Australia last month. The trilogy of L'avventura, La notte and L'eclisse were just astonishing films. I must get the CC versions of them and, hopefully, La notte will also be released next year - has this been confirmed? I also saw Red Desert and The Passenger both in glorious colour and his use of colour is amazing. I also loved Antonioni's framing as its quite exquisite and an art onto itself. Any frame can be used as a painting. Red Desert requires several viewings and the final shot of The Passenger is just brilliant. I didn't see Zabriskie Point but many noted that the film is a disaster and a snooze-fest but I find this hard to believe.

The most important piece on the R1 Eros disc is the short Lo sguardo di Michelangelo (The Gaze of Michelangelo) which is Antonioni on really top form... Simply superb! See Jonathan Rosenbaum in Rouge.

marty wrote:I didn't see Zabriskie Point but many noted that the film is a disaster and a snooze-fest but I find this hard to believe.

It's not a disaster. The acting is weak at times, but I loved it. It carries some effective punches.

Commander Shears wrote:As a major fan of Antonioni, I am pained to say that Eros is not a good place to start so much as it is a good place to avoid at all costs. Unless you are trying to work your way up in quality, that is.

Age, stroke, or just having lost 'it', there is no shortage of legitimate excuses, but Antonioni's entry is an embaressment

davidhare wrote:Apart from playing like a National Lampoon parody of Antonioni's style, the performances and delivery of the two leads are so execrable as to make Daria and Mark in Zabriskie Point look positively Shakespearian.

Yeah, I concur completely. Like the Commander, I'm also a major Antonioni fan, but his segment was one of the worst cinematic experiences of my whole life, mostly because I essentially spent $400 (for my plane ticket) to see the film and was utterly disappointed by Antonioni's segment.

Zabriskie Point is one of the most beautifully photographed films of all time (although I have issues with the quality of the new print that is now circulating). To me it is his most aesthetically appealing work. I can understand people having issues with the acting (using "stars" would have completely ruined the film), but I don't see "snooze-fest".

Rosenbaum's review of Eye to Eye is a joke. It's just a nice short. However, having visited that church in Rome this summer, I can attest to MA's skill in making that sculpture look much more amazing than it actually is.

I love Eros, although the English language version (not on the US DVD) is the one to watch. Yes, it's weird and insane. What's wrong with that?

souvenir wrote:The sickle was especially harsh today

No confirmation in the media yet, but I've heard that Antonioni died Monday as well.

fred wrote:

souvenir wrote:The sickle was especially harsh today

No confirmation in the media yet, but I've heard that Antonioni died Monday as well.

this is like God's cruel joke if true.

The BBC has just reported it.

And here's Corriere Della Sera and Il Messaggero.

Two great masters of cinema gone within days of each other.

This is a sad week to be a cinephile.

I can't believe it, Bergman and Antonioni so close together.

Of my three favourite directors, that's two gone within 24 hours.

Theo Angelopoulos, look after yourself.