ANTONIONI AND ME

Here is a cheap way to open up a piece of writing: "I have a confession to make." Upon hearing the news of Michelangelo Antonioni dying, I realized that I have only seen two films of his -- and the usual or typical picks at that; those being Blowup (1966) and his next film Zabriske Point (1970). Blowup I first saw in the summer of 1988 and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The film, to me, was definitely 'artistic' in nature but also very accessible. It was not so 'out there' that I could not imagine the average movie-goer not being able to sit through it. The filmmaking had style and personality. The plot was a very simple, that being a London photographer (David Hemmings) snapping a picture of what turned out to be a possible murder. This plot was the carrier in exploring the internal aspects of the photographer's being -- with a little help from drugs and sex. I was in London, England, during the summer of 1967... about a year after this film would have been shot. While watching Blowup, many things came back to me. Many years later, Austin Powers took us back to this time and place, courtesy of art direction and music tracking but Antonioni was there at the time. Little did he know that his film would be a pretty important social document. It goes without saying that 'times were changing' in the mid 'sixties. One thing that struck me during my screening of Blowup was the aspect of Hemmings continually blowing up the film negative -- to quite an extreme from the original view -- without revealing any real grain structure. (He had to do this to explore whether or not he captured the murder on film.) Maybe Antonioni was making a point here. Another scene stands out; a certain 'love scene'. I have long suspected that this particular moment influenced director Bob Fosse when he made Cabaret (one of my favourite flicks). The tone and feeling was much the same... in this case Michael York and his two lovers. Zabriske Point used to play on a regular basis in the local theatre in the town where I lived in the early to mid 'seventies'. Of course, the film had recently come from the lab. It was replayed, I suspect, as the theatre owner noticed that people kept coming back. I didn't see it until ten or so years ago. It is all the average person might suspect... it is very 'artsy'. Now I like films with such monikers as I like all kinds of films, period, but this one probably requires another viewing. The overpowering impression Zabriske Point made on me is that it is both explosive and implosive. It is time to start exploring more Antonioni.