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Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 11:20 am**

I've been waiting for this announcement for ages, but it seems that this year marks the end of my silent waiting:

Fingers crossed! Now all we need is The Passenger and all 3 English language films will be out on shiny discs. Great year for Antonioni fans!

Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 1:09 pm**

Superb... ZP is indeed ripe for a critical reassessment... There's an interesting 2CD Soundtrack album - 2nd disc is all outtakes - improvisations and alternate versions from Jerry Garcia & Pink Floyd...

Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 3:51 pm**

Which I incidentally have and can recommend it for everyone into late sixties music and soundtracks in general. The second disc of outtakes and alternate takes is worth the price of the set alone. It comes with a thick booklet with great liner notes about the film and the production of the soundtrack and closes with a message from Jerry Garcia himself in which he talks a bit about The Passenger as well.

Back to topic: My question is - who will release this (the DVD, that is)? Warners?

Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 4:23 pm**

Am I nuts, or have I seen The Passenger on DVD? Maybe not in R1, but...in some zone...

Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 4:31 pm**

OOP Imagica R2 from Japan... ZP should be Warner in that it should be part of the MGM library transferred to Turner/Time Warner...

Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 9:13 pm**

Eros is slated for an April 8th release from Warner Independent, last I checked. Perhaps Warner is trying to time things, boding well for The Passenger?

Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 10:20 pm**

Speaking of Pink Floyd scores, has The Committee ever made it to DVD that anyone's aware of?

Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 11:25 pm**

Good old Warner - glad they didn't just leave it at Blowup.

Posted: **Fri Jan 14, 2005 11:52 pm**

so is the critical estimation high, then? All I know about ZABRISKIE POINT is from John Fahey's book where he rather entertainingly relates the tale of Antonioni's coming to ask him to score it, only to later come to blows; also, someone else claiming that it was a colossal misfire in his filmography.

Posted: **Sat Jan 15, 2005 5:47 am**

It great to see this film receive so much praise by today's film buffs. I assume this current excitement is based upon everyone's critical judgements. ZP was critically canned upon its release and subsequently dissmissed as "rubbish" throughout the '70s. Today it comes across as being rather dated but I think one can look at the film from other perspectives. To criticise the film as being dated because it is set in the US during the anti-war/anti-establishment era is unfair since history is relevant even if viewed through creative glasses. However, does the film do justice to its protagonists? Did BLOW-UP? Can Anonioni's films be measured according to character or to mood? Does he have a message in ZP and if so, is it garbled as the contemporary critics thought at the time of its release? I can't find answers to these questions when I view the film so am I wrong to look?

Posted: **Sat Jan 15, 2005 9:16 am**

davidhare wrote:Indeed this film is closer in style to "China" from the same period than to any previous Antonioni.

Very true - a good analogy. The gaze. The same piercing eye, that revealed more than it should - unpalatable to some. Continuing to his latest short, THE GAZE OF MICHELANGELO... Incidentally China lifted the the ban on CHUNG KUO CINA only last year, when the full 4 hour version was screened in Beijing, early December... Of early films, check out CRONACA DI AMORE, his first. Remarkable, with the amazing continuous tracking and panning shot on the bridge....

Posted: **Sat Jan 15, 2005 3:15 pm**

Yes the title ARCHITECTURE OF VISION has been used both in Italian & English for books by and about Antonioni...

It's lovely the way he uses the dance company choreographed to expand on Mark and Daria's dusty desert lovemaking ...

Posted: **Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:38 pm**

Anyone heard any updates on this dvd??? [-o<

Posted: **Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:39 pm**

Great news! If Warner are finally taking the chance on Zabriskie, then surely releasing a 1975 Jack Nicholson film isn't such a gamble?

Funnily enough, I was watching The Passenger last night (DVDr from the Japanese letterbox Laserdisc). Great film. Very mysterious - it plays on your thoughts for quite some time. It is surely one of the great films about the myth of Identity. There are various reasons to why is has been a difficult film to see over the years: it wasn't a major success; the film contains a genuine execution by rifle-fire; Nicholson is said to have some kind of control over the film. And so on. I really hope that we see it on DVD this year. Nicholson's involvement would be a real bonus.

I have never seen Zabriskie Point in 2.35:1 - only 1.78:1 on TV a few years ago. Not a great film, but the visuals are undeniably stunning.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2005 1:18 am**

Well what I'm really wondering is if anyone has seen news for this anywhere? It was announced on the Roger Waters website several months ago, but I've seen nothing on it anywhere else.

Posted: **Tue Mar 29, 2005 7:55 am**

Maybe they pushed it back to coincide with the DVD release of Eros? That would make sense too.

Posted: **Thu Nov 03, 2005 6:34 pm**

A new print (far from perfect, in my opinion) played at the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC last weekend. One can only hope that this heralds a DVD release. In any event, the Laser Disc is gorgeous so I guess I can wait.

Posted: **Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:15 pm**

perhaps the source is a bit odd, but GQ's site style.com made mention of the passanger last week in its media section, stating that its theatrical rerelease would be followed by a DVD early next year.

Posted: **Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:26 pm**

Antonioni originally had a final shot of a plane writing "FUCK AMERICA" in the sky. I wonder if this footage still exists. It was deleted before release. Obviously!

Posted: **Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:29 pm**

Source? Have 17 books about & by Antonioni - don't remember this tale - jog my memory...

Posted: **Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:51 pm**

ellipsis7 wrote:Source?

Probably a bit of gossip, rumor, trivia and/or hype, though I seem to recall something to that effect way back when.

Trivia from the Amazon VHS listing:

Michelangelo Antonioni's original ending was a shot of an airplane sky-writing the phrase "Fuck You, America," which was cut by MGM president Louis F. Polk along with numerous other scenes. Louis F. Polk was eventually replaced by James T. Aubrey, who had most of the cut footage restored, but without this final shot.

From a Senses of Cinema interview with Rolando Caputo of the Cinema Studies Program at Melbourne's LaTrobe University:

Saul Symonds: The first thing I wanted to ask you wasn't actually a question, it was more a point I wanted to clarify. I was reading about Zabriskie Point (1970) and this website said that the final scene was originally of a plane skywriting the words, "Fuck you America," and of course it said that the studio made him delete that. I was curious if you're able to verify this.

Rolando Caputo: I'm not sure about the skywriting, but I have heard people say that there was some variation regarding the ending. I believe that the issue was about the female character getting back into the car after the explosion. There was talk that Antonioni wanted to end with the explosion and leave it somewhat ambiguous whether it was a projection of her imagination or whether it had a real status to it. The shot of her getting back into the car makes it appear that it could only have been a fantasy projection of hers. The ambiguity has been removed. But this is pure speculation, I've seen no definitive evidence about alternative endings to the film.

Posted: **Sun Nov 06, 2005 9:57 pm**

It just seems out of character for Antonioni... ("Trust me, I am not God, but I am Antonioni") who if nothing else was not embarassed to be a sophisticate... There's nothing else in his filmmaking to suggest he might attempt a visual two fingers up as suggested, or such a clear and concrete ending... And being Antonioni, if he had done it he would have spent hours and days till the aircraft spelt exactly the right kind of letters, even leaving them unfinished etc.! We would have heard of that....

Posted: **Sun Nov 06, 2005 10:09 pm**

ellipsis7 wrote:It just seems out of character for Antonioni...

Agreed! As I said, gossip, rumors and hype.

Posted: **Sun Nov 06, 2005 11:01 pm**

Yes, it is most likely apocryphal. I assumed that it was somewhat established. On reflection, it is an uncharacteristically crass idea from such a filmmaker as Antonioni.

Does anyone know what he actually thought of America at that time?

Posted: **Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:36 am**

Does anyone know what he actually thought of America at that time?

For one perspective, see John Fahey's essay "Antonioni" in his How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life.