Michelangelo Antonioni
- davebert
- Joined: Fri May 05, 2006 4:00 pm
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- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
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In a word, no.davebert wrote:I just realized that I graduated from film school on the day Antonioni and Bergman died. Think there's some kind of cosmic transference of powers that might just happen?
But look on the bright side: if there had been a cosmic transference of powers, you'd spend your entire career being expected to produce epoch-shattering masterpieces, suffering disproportionate critical excoriation when you don't.
(This was Bergman's great advantage in particular - he was able to develop in relative obscurity for a full decade before Smiles of a Summer Night really turned the international spotlight on him in a big way)
- davebert
- Joined: Fri May 05, 2006 4:00 pm
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I am still beyond words. Michelangelo Antonioni was one of the artists who meant the most to me. Many people admire the work of Antonioni from a distance, but I love his films, love them! Whenever I glimpse a scene from L'Avventura or L'Eclisse I feel transported to another place, a heightened sense of consciousness. With Antonioni alive, I felt that we were still breathing the same air as a man who grasped the complexities of life, an artist who tried to express feelings with feelings, on the screen, and not articulate them with words. Antonioni always understood instinctively what cinema at its core is and when I watch the movements of Monica Vitti within the frame, the way objects are placed and relate to each other within consecutive shots and the way Antonioni edits those sequences into a synonymous whole, I feel secure in the hands of a true master of the highest order. And still there remains something enigmatic about every Antonioni film, something everlasting that we will never quite grasp. It's the same enigma that defines life: why do certain moments, glances, physical or emotional feelings evoke an emotion in ourselves? The answer isn't necessary, but the artistic expression of them is at the heart of Antonioni's immortal work.
I feel unable to say farewell to Michelangelo. But one has to overcome the terrible sense of loss, and cherish the art he has left us.
I feel unable to say farewell to Michelangelo. But one has to overcome the terrible sense of loss, and cherish the art he has left us.
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- Joined: Fri Feb 16, 2007 7:15 pm
Regarding the Chinese communist attack on Chung Kuo - Cina in '72, I believe it is now thought to have been a disguised attack on Chou En-lai by the Gang of Four, (Madame Mao, etc). Chou En-lai wanted to open up China after the Cultural Revolution and had invited Antonioni over to make this documentary.
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"German film-maker Wim Wenders said he had gone "beyond the clouds", referring to the 1995 film Al di la Delle Nuvole which he co-directed with the Italian director."Barmy wrote:Funeral Report
[puke]
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
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- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 1:13 pm
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- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
I'm surprised you didn't quote what he said next. "Today, while we are gathered here to mourn the end of life, we must also not forget The End of Violence, VHS copies of which I will be selling out of my trunk after the reception."leo goldsmith wrote:... or self-congratulation for, of all films, Beyond the Clouds.
- Tommaso
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am
I'm just back from my holidays to Italy, only to find out about the deaths of Antonioni and Bergman. Well, now I understand why RAI Uno showed "La signora senza camelie" and "I vinti" on the same day (just accidentily watched bits of them zapping through the hotel's TV set). And I thought it was just a normal retrospective....
I'm very very sad.
I'm very very sad.
- Tommaso
- Joined: Fri May 19, 2006 10:09 am
Precisely. I wanted to get away from all the rustle and bustle if only for two weeks. Plus I can only understand very little Italian, so I guess that's why I didn't even think of looking at the newsstand or watching news on TV. Still I couldn't resist visiting a dvd shop, and managed to get the dvd (with english subs!) of the 1953 anthology film "L'amore in città", a project initiated by Zavattini, and which features an episode by Antonioni. I have never seen that film, but will watch the disc as soon as I can, in a melancholic mood for sure.
- Barmy
- Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm
Oldest Living Directors
1908
Manoel de Oliveira, 11 December, The Singularities of Rapariga Loira (2008)
1909
Richard L. Bare, 12 August, "Green Acres" (43 episodes, 1965-1971)
1911
Jules Dassin, December 18, Circle of Two (1980)
1908
Manoel de Oliveira, 11 December, The Singularities of Rapariga Loira (2008)
1909
Richard L. Bare, 12 August, "Green Acres" (43 episodes, 1965-1971)
1911
Jules Dassin, December 18, Circle of Two (1980)
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
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Ronald Neame should come third - he was born on 23 April 1911. Hardly a major auteur, but more significant than Richard L. Bare.Barmy wrote:Oldest Living Directors
1908
Manoel de Oliveira, 11 December, The Singularities of Rapariga Loira (2008)
1909
Richard L. Bare, 12 August, "Green Acres" (43 episodes, 1965-1971)
1911
Jules Dassin, December 18, Circle of Two (1980)
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
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- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
After watching the trailer on the first 42nd Street Forever volume I'm still unsure exactly how it would work - is it one big image projected over two screens or two screens showing different images? All the trailer told me was that it was made in 'Duovision'!MichaelB wrote:And the 100% split-screen Wicked, Wicked deserves props for being one of those films that I'm glad someone had the balls to actually attempt, even if it ultimately proved what a stupid idea it was.
And if we are talking about rude sounding names, nothing beats Dick Bush! (except maybe for Willie Colon!)
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
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Straightforward split-screen, much like a Brian De Palma set-piece, but the gimmick here is that it runs throughout the entire feature.colinr0380 wrote:After watching the trailer on the first 42nd Street Forever volume I'm still unsure exactly how it would work - is it one big image projected over two screens or two screens showing different images? All the trailer told me was that it was made in 'Duovision'!
John Waters once imagined a female counterpart to Peter O'Toole called Muffy O'Clit...And if we are talking about rude sounding names, nothing beats Dick Bush! (except maybe the name of one of the people who did the music for William Lustig's Vigilante - Willie Colon!)
- John Cope
- Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:40 pm
- Location: where the simulacrum is true
Michael, have you seen Hans Canosa's Conversations with Other Women? It too employs a split screen for the entire feature but I think it succeeds marvelously. It isn't perfect, of course, but Canosa really understands what to emphasize and why, employing his technique for often subtle ends. The fact that it's a more or less straight drama probably helps ground it and prevent it all from seeming too much the gimmick. The split is used imaginatively throughout, freeing up dramatic possibility by simple shifts of framing or allowing internal glimpses of the characters' minds. And overall it's a quite poignant, very adult picture.MichaelB wrote:And the 100% split-screen Wicked, Wicked deserves props for being one of those films that I'm glad someone had the balls to actually attempt, even if it ultimately proved what a stupid idea it was.
And now we're far away from talking about Antonioni.
Last edited by John Cope on Wed Aug 08, 2007 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.