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Blowup (1966)

Directed by:
Michelangelo Antonioni
COUNTRY
Italy/United Kingdom
GENRE
Drama
NORWEGIAN TITLE
Blowup
RUNNING TIME
109 minutes
Produced by:
Pierre Rouve
Carlo Ponti
Written by (based on a story by Julio Cortazar):
Michelangelo Antonioni
Tonino Guerra
Edward Bond


Cast includes:

CHARACTER ACTOR/ACTRESS RATING
Thomas David Hemmings
Jane Vanessa Redgrave ½
Patricia Sarah Miles
Teenager Jane Birkin

 

Review

Seen in retrospect, this artsy, wonderfully photographed pop-life mystery seems out of place – almost caught in a vacuum. Remarkably, this is both one its greatest strengths and weaknesses as the world presented to us by a simultaneously charmed and pessimistic Antonioni (in his first non-Italian feature) makes for a voyage through more or less surrealistic scenes packed with more or less significant imagery. As a document of London's 1966 fashion scene, Blowup seems dated and staged (the "club" scene including the Yardbirds is anything but naturally vibrant), and the acting is as erratically stylized as the nature of most of the main characters. Still, these are elements that make Blowup the joyous journey it is. As with our protagonist, we let ourselves be seduced from one segment to another, relishing a set of values and motivations that are arguably alien to us. And when being in the hands of the fascinating Hemmings character, all his quests and wanderings seem entrancing.

Copyright © 8.9.2004 Fredrik Gunerius Fevang [HAVE YOUR SAY]