Michelangelo Antonioni 1912-2007

[BegintheBeguine]

http://www.imdb.com/news/flash/ Made some enjoyable and interesting movies.

 

[Quigley Brown]

When are they ever going to release Zabriskie Point on DVD?????

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I don't know. I saw it but don't remember a thing about it. Also the soundtrack is in my record collection. Just put a reserve on it on VHS from the library, though.

 

[HadleyH]

Father of modern angst and alienation...

... another one of the greatest living directors has been lost (followed by Ingmar Bergman yesterday), one of Italy's most famous and influential filmakers, described by Martin Scorsese as a "poet with a camera". My favorite film of his, "L'Avventura"...another one "Blow-Up".
This is a sad day for some of us.

 

[jake_fink]

It's a bad week to be a film buff.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

This seems to be a week when we are losing our great directors, first Bergman and now Antonioni.

I loved his Romeo and Juliet, a wonderful film.

karol

 

[Doctor Strange]

I believe you're thinking of Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film of Romeo and Juliet. (A huge favorite of mine!) Antonioni would never have made such a romantic story: his films are mostly about postmodern alienation. Frankly, I was never much of a fan...

But how bizarre that these two European master directors died on the same day!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Dr. Strange -- Thank you for the correction, I got their names mixed up.

Antonioni did Blow Up, which was a big film for me and my generation, a disturbing film that stayed with me for years afterwards. Don't believe I saw any of his other films.

karol

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yes, Blow Up was certainly a very popular and "important" film back in those days. I was a bit young to see it when it was first released (though I was already following movie news religously and read everything I could find about it), but I saw it a couple of years later. I can't say that it had much of an effect on me as any kind of liberting experience, though since I was by then working in parents' photography business (which was nowhere near as exciting as the fashion photographer depicted in the film!), I found the photographic aspects interesting.

Anyway, I never really "got" Antonioni... I respected him, but his films just never excited me. (Not like those of Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, etc.)

 

[TM]

I love Zabriskie Point! But it took a number of viewings to get to that appreciation. So if you were disappointed when you first saw it, try it again.

I do see DVD's of the film available on ebay.

Tony

 

[Quigley Brown]

I love Zabriskie Point! But it took a number of viewings to get to that appreciation. So if you were disappointed when you first saw it, try it again.

I do see DVD's of the film available on ebay.

Tony

They say the DVD is 'region' this or that...some foreign standard? What does that mean. I just know that if it's not on Barnes & Noble.com it's not truely available. Funny thing...the first time a saw it was quite a few years ago on AMC (before they started having commercials).

 

[jake_fink]

They say the DVD is 'region' this or that...some foreign standard? What does that mean. I just know that if it's not on Barnes & Noble.com it's not truely available. Funny thing...the first time a saw it was quite a few years ago on AMC (before they started having commercials).

Region one or region free (no region/region 0) will work in N.A. There will inevitably be a proper region 1 version at some point, but in the meantime, a commercial, though Russian, version (with removeable subtitles) is better than nothing, n'est pas?

My favourite Antonioni film is Red Desert, but I also love L'Aventurra, Zabriske Point and The Passenger. I did not "like" any of these on first viewing. His films are a little more like texts, they need the viewer to reflect, review and then come back to them; they take time. Even so, I can understand not really loving his work. He had no interest in the comic, the heroic and only barely in the human(istic). His view was of an existential void filled by shades, creatures who cannot even comprehend, nevermind name their purpose. In L'Aventurra the characters search for someone who may not have even existed while in Zabriske Point the two characters who do find a purpose become fugitives/criminals (as they did in real life after the film). A great artist, though probably not to everyone's taste.

 

[TM]

Ah, Red Desert! Haven't viewed that in a long time.

Yes, Jake Fink, we agree that some films require multiple viewings to acquire full appreciation. Which is different from a film that can be happily watched again and again, I think. Antonioni is that way, as is much of the French New Wave, and some Peckinpah. Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" is one such where the level of violence is so disturbing that upon first view you really can't get the subtle relationships.

Tony

 

[HadleyH]

You know what? Antonioni is an acquired taste, like oysters, you either like them or you don't , and that's all there is to it. [huh]