Michelangelo Antonioni

File:Antonioni.2005.jpg

Antonioni on September 15, 2005

Michelangelo Antonioni (born September 29, 1912) is an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered as some of the most influential in film aesthetics.

Life

Antonioni was born in Ferrara, Emilia Romagna.

He graduated in economics at the University of Bologna. He reached Rome in 1940 where he attended specifical studies at Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Cinecittà. There he met some of the artists with whom he cooperated in the future years; among them Roberto Rossellini.

Work

Antonioni's first major success was L'Avventura (1960), which was followed by La Notte (1961) and L'eclisse (1962), which made up an informal trilogy on the theme of alienation. His first color film Il deserto rosso (1964), also explores modernist themes of alienation, forming what is often referred to as a tetrology. Actress Monica Vitti appeared in the four films of the tetrology, portraying female characters struggling to adjust to the isolating conditions of modernity. His first English-language film, Blowup (1966), was also a major success. Though it dealt with the challenging theme of the impossibility of objective standards, it became popular, partially because, by current standards, it was sexually explicit, and partially because it featured Vanessa Redgrave. The park scenes from the film were set in Maryon Park, Charlton, London. Zabriskie Point (1970), his first film set in America, was much less successful, even though its soundtrack incorporated such popular artists as Pink Floyd (who wrote new music specifically for the film), the Grateful Dead, and the Rolling Stones. The Passenger (1975), which starred Jack Nicholson, while praised by critics, was not particularly successful either. Though he continues to direct, Antonioni has never recaptured the wide appeal of his earlier work. In 1995, however, he was given an Academy Award for lifetime achievement.

Themes

He described himself as a Marxist intellectual, but some authors advance some doubts about his effective adherence to Marxism. In contrast with his contemporaries, including the neorealists and also Federico Fellini, Ermanno Olmi and Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose stories generally dealt with the lives of the working class and the misfits and outcasts of society, Antonioni's most notable films revolved around the elite and the urban bourgeois. However, contrary to what these critics say, his films depict his wealthy characters as empty and soulless, rather than romanticizing them. La Notte depicts the disintegration of a wealthy married couple who can no longer connect meaningfully; L'Avventura depicts the story of a woman who goes missing during a wealthy yachting trip, and whose fiance and best friend subsequently develop a sexual relationship under the pretence of looking for her, but are unable to develop genuine love for each other; Blowup depicts the superficial world of a 1960s fashion photographer in the "mod" scene, who in the end proves indifferent when called upon to report a potential murder. In a similar vein, Zabriskie Point is often interpreted as a criticism of American capitalism, and, though seemingly critical of bourgeois American hippies, sympathetically depicts their desire for escape. Antonioni's films also tend to be sensitive to the beauty of landscapes--such as the California desert in Zabriskie Point, or the rocky islands in L'Avventura--which adds not only to the visually stunning quality of his work, but also to his depiction of the rich as arrogant lost souls vainly attempting to impose their finite will upon an unyielding and sublime nature. Thus, despite his critics, Antonioni's films ruthlessly dissect the rich with a disapproving Marxist sensibility, even as his camerawork displays a fascination for the ornate settings of the wealthy class.

Style

Ingmar Bergman once remarked that he admired some of Antonioni's films for their detached and sometimes dreamlike quality. His films tend to have very spare plots and dialogue, and much of the screen time is spent lingering on certain settings--such as the ten-minute continuous take in The Passenger, or the many scenes in La Notte which show the female character simply wandering the city silently observing other people. His films are full of visual beauty, and are perfectly calculated to capture the alienation of the characters, often accomplished in a spare, slow-moving style.

Filmography

Gente del Po (People of the Po, 1943)
Nettezza urbana (Dustmen, 1948)
Oltre L'oblio (1948)
Roma-Montevideo (1948)
L'Amorosa menzogna (1949)
Sette cani e un vestito (1949)
Bomarzo (1949)
Ragazze in Bianco (1949)
Superstizione (1949)
La villa dei mostri (The House of Monsters, 1950)
Cronaca di un amore (Chronicle of a Love, 1950)
La Funivia del Faloria (1950)
I vinti (The Vanquished) (1952)
La signora senza camelie (Camille Without Camellias) (1953)
Tentato Suicido (When Love Fails) - episode in L'Amore in Città (Love in the City, 1953)
Le amiche (The Girl Friends, 1955)
Il grido (The Cry, 1957)
L'avventura (The Adventure) (1960)
La notte (The Night) (1961)
L'eclisse (The Eclipse) (1962)
Il deserto rosso (The Red Desert) (1964)
I Tre volti (The Three Faces of a Woman) (1965) "Il provino" segment
Blowup (1966)
Zabriskie Point (1970)
Chung Kuo (1972) (documentary)
Professione: reporter (The Passenger) (1975)
Il Mistero di Oberwald (The Mystery of Oberwald, 1980)
Identificazione di una donna (Identification of a Woman, 1982)
Volcanoes and Carnival (1992)
Beyond the Clouds (Par Dela Les Nuages, 1995) (co-credited with Wim Wenders)
Eros (2004) -- segment "Il filo pericoloso delle cose" ("The Dangerous Thread of Things")
Lo sguardo di Michelangelo (2004) Tren de sombras (español)

Bibliographies

Antonioni Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)

Books

Unfinished Business: Screenplays, Scenarios, and Ideas, ISBN 156886051X. Introduction by Thomas J. Harrison

Blow Up... and Other Exaggerations: The Autobiography of David Hemmings, by David Hemmings. ISBN 186105789X.

My Time With Antonioni: The Diary of an Extraordinary Experience, by Wim Wenders. ISBN 0571200761. [This is a diary of the filming of Antonioni's Beyond the Clouds. This is an small paperback edition. However, the French, German and Italian editions of this diary are expensive books with a great collection of beautifully printed pictures taken on the set by Wim Wenders and his wife. See the next item]

Avec Michelangelo Antonioni. Chronique d'un film, by Wim Wenders. ISBN 2851813692. [This is the French edition of Wenders' book, including color and black and white pictures taken on the set by Wim Wenders and his wife]

Antonioni, or, The Surface of the World, by Seymour Chatman. ISBN 0520053419.

The Films of Michelangelo Antonioni, by Peter Brunette. ISBN 0521389925.

External links