Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Michelangelo Antonioni In Memoriam



Il Deserto Rosso by Michelangelo Antonioni
(September 29, 1912 - July 30, 2007)


Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni has also passed away. It's an interesting coincidence that his death took place exactly on the same day as Ingmar Bergman's, since both directors exemplified European art cinema of the 1950s-70s era. Antonioni, for some reason, is not remembered today perhaps as well as his contemporaries Bergman and Fellini, but especially in the 1960s and 70s his films -- such as L'Avventura, L'Eclisse, Il Deserto Rosso, Blow-Up, Zabriskie Point, Professione: Reporter -- with their alienated characters and meandering scenes were obligatory watching among the intellectual modernist audiences.

Antonioni also had an eye for contemporary fashions and styles: who can forget The Yardbirds' guitar-smashing performance for the catatonic audiences in the 1966 "Swinging London" study Blow-Up or Pink Floyd's hypnotic music for the infamous explosion scene of Zabriskie Point (1970)?

Obituaries:

BBC
CNN
The New York Times

  • Michelangelo Angelo search results @ YouTube
  • Michelangelo Antonioni @ pHinnWeb
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