Michelangelo Antonioni 1912-2007

At age 94 legendary filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni has passed away last night at his home in Rome. Famous for his cinema of alienation and his fantastical visions, he, along with Federico Fellini, turned Italy away from the Neorealistic visions of Vittorio de Sica and Roberto Rossellini towards a cinema of the imagination.

Though he was far from being a typical Italian filmmaker, some of his most famous films created in England. With films such as 'Blow-up' and 'L'Avventura' he can only be considered one the world's greatest cinematic assets. His trilogy on alienation and the open spaces spaces surrounding the human psyche, including the aformentioned ' L'Avventura,' 'L'Eclisse,' and 'La Notte,' still stands, ironically along with Bergman's 60s trilogy, as one of the most tortured series of films on humanity, while remaining entirely humanistic.

Jack Nicholson once said of Antonioni, while presenting him with the lifetime achievement Oscar, "In the empty, silent spaces of the world, he has found metaphors that illuminate the silent places our hearts, and found in them, too, a strange and terrible beauty: austere, elegant, enigmatic, haunting." Nicholson starred in Antonioni's 'The Passenger' which is emblematic of his paced, contemplative style. The film ten minute finale is filmed in complete silence, which had (and has) some viewers ripping their hair out while still recieving standing ovations from others (this happened just last year when I went to see a restored print at the the cinema).

Antonioni made films through the end of his life, collaborating with Wong Kar-Wai and Steven Soderbergh on the pasted together 'Eros,' in 2004. Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome, put it lightly hen he said, "With Antonioni, not only has one of the greatest living directors been lost, but also a master of the modern screen."

A screenshot from 'L'Eclisse'


A clip from 'Blow-up' with the Yardbirds performaing in a studio. Emblematic of the tension filled shots that were charicteristic of Antonioni: at once static, quiet, paced while remaining intense, busy, cluttered. For a rock-n-roll scene the shot is so still and quiet, the soundtrack is loud, but he never focuses on the sound, it seems to be more about the group of collected people, the power of the moment, the intensity of community, the power of power. Anyhow, 'Blow-Up:'