Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni
was not a wunderkind like Orson Welles, Francois Truffaut or
Terrence Malick, whose first films were instant classics.
Although he began making short films in the early 1940s, it wasn’t
until his fifth feature, "L’Avventura" (1960), that
Antonioni began making his cinematic mark.
"The Vision that Changed Cinema: Michelangelo Antonioni,"
BAMcinematek’s career-spanning retrospective (June 7-29), is
essential viewing. Here is a director whose major themes and
style are unusual, even unique: Antonioni ceaselessly explored
how human interaction in the 20th century degenerated into isolation
through a trademark visual technique that pitted his characters
against imposing landscapes that accentuated their futile struggles
against abandonment and loneliness.
Antonioni made some of the greatest films of the post-war era,
starting with his so-called "isolation" trilogy of
"L’Avventura," "La Notte" and "L’Eclisse."
He also directed several fascinating experimental features, innovative
shorts and documentaries, many of which will be shown during
the BAM series, along with additional features about the director
and his continuing cinematic influence.
Born in 1912, Antonioni began writing for film journals in the
1930s and began shooting short films in the ’40s. His initial
features – "Chronicle of a Love" (1950), "The
Vanquished" (1952), "The Lady without Camillas"
(1953), "The Girlfriends" (1955), "Il Grido"
(1956) – introduced a director who was forging a new style to
go beyond then-prevalent neo-realism in presenting characters
trying to make sense of their increasingly hermetic, mechanized
environment.
It was the premiere of "L’Avventura" at the 1960 Cannes
Film Festival that brought Antonioni worldwide recognition. Ostensibly
about the search for a woman who goes missing while on a yachting
trip, the film actually develops into how her disappearance affects
both her husband and best friend. Utilizing the rocky Mediterranean
island landscapes to shattering effect, Antonioni made initial
audiences uneasy, unaccustomed as they were to films that don’t
tie everything into neat little bows and introduce characters
whom one doesn’t empathize with.
Antonioni followed "L’Avventura" with "La Notte"
(1961) and "L’Eclisse" (1962), exquisitely wrought
studies of ennui among European bourgeoisie. The final sequence
of "L’Eclisse" has entered film legend as a purely
(and poetically) visual evocation of the emptiness left behind
when relationships go awry.
After his trilogy, Antonioni continued his restless experimentation.
"Red Desert" (1964) saw him painting grass the right
shade of green, for example, to emphasize the color scheme he
envisioned for his startlingly visualized exploration of a woman’s
neuroses. The result (Antonioni’s first color picture) is among
the most ravishing-looking films ever made.
"Blow Up" (1966), Antonioni’s first English-language
picture, was as surprising as "L’Avventura." It begins
as a murder mystery: a photographer may have inadvertently caught
a murder in progress. The crime is never solved, but Antonioni
is more interested in juxtaposing his characters with the swinging
mod scene of mid-’60s London, which is brilliantly evoked.
Antonioni came to America to direct "Zabriskie Point"
(1969), a moody time-capsule piece about two restless hippies’
fatal trek through the Southwest desert. Whatever its other merits,
"Zabriskie Point" was notable for its trend-setting
use of Pink Floyd’s psychedelic music and a remarkable Death
Valley sex scene.
Antonioni returned to the desert – an obvious metaphor for his
themes of human loneliness and isolation – for 1975’s "The
Passenger," another introspective study: Jack Nicholson
plays David Locke, who, upon stealing a dead journalist’s identity,
is caught up in events beyond his control. Like "L’Eclisse,"
"The Passenger" culminates with an astonishing sequence,
a circular panning shot showing Locke’s ultimate fate and others’
reactions to this discovery.
Antonioni’s later films include "The Mystery of Oberwald"
(1980), a color-coded shot-on-video remake of Jean Cocteau’s
play "The Eagle with Two Heads"; 1995’s "Beyond
the Clouds," co-directed with Wim Wenders following Antonioni’s
stroke; and the short "The Dangerous Thread of Things,"
Antonioni’s contribution to the 2004 omnibus film "Eros."
The least-seen and underappreciated of these works is 1982’s
"Identification of a Woman," another exploration of
isolated characters with a series of bravura sequences, including
a soft-core sex scene that makes explicit the eroticism that’s
always been present in Antonioni’s work.
Don’t miss
There are two big stories in this BAMcinematek series. First,
many of these films are being shown in brand new prints, which
should make every feature, but especially the color films like
"Red Desert," look positively amazing.
Second, there will be a screening of Antonioni’s legendary four-hour
documentary which he made while on an authorized visit to China
in the early 1970s. "Chung Kuo Cina" (1972) was promptly
derided and banned by Chinese authorities, because they didn’t
get the valentine they assumed they’d receive.
It’s obvious they had never seen any movies by Michelangelo Antonioni.
"The Vision that Changed Cinema:
Michelangelo Antonioni" plays June 7-29 at BAMcinematek
(30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Place in Fort Greene). Admission
is $10 for adults, $7 for students and seniors. For a complete
film schedule, call (718) 636-4100 or visit the Web site, www.bam.org.
