Only when I discovered Michelangelo Antonioni's earlier films did Blow Up make (some) sense to me. Seen in isolation it appears to be about swinging London. But seen in the context of L'Eclisse, Il Deserto Rosso etc, you realise that an awful lot of the weirdness is simply part of the normal Mondo Antonioni psycho-geography. Add to this the fact that until mid-1965 the maestro was intending to set his next film "about a photographer" in New York, but then he read something and talked to someone and he decided to move it to London where exciting cultural things were happening, and the fact this is mind-blowing makes even more (or less?) sense.
But none of this reduces the impact of the achievement here with a young and impressive cast on top form tackling a great deal of modern angst amid layers of truth and appearance. All with, in effect, English as a second language. Maybe it was the not being on home turf that really brought out Antonioni's genius in Blow Up?
And is the title a reference simply to the 'blowing up' of a photograph (beyond all reasonable proportions or meaning?) or a reflection of a kind of mental 'blow up' happening all around in Britain in 1966. Quite possibly both. Anyway, it's FAB.
Only when I discovered Michelangelo Antonioni's earlier films did Blow Up make (some) sense to me. Seen in isolation it appears to be about swinging London. But seen in the context of L'Eclisse, Il Deserto Rosso etc, you realise that an awful lot of the weirdness is simply part of the normal Mondo Antonioni psycho-geography. Add to this the fact that until mid-1965 the maestro was intending to set his next film "about a photographer" in New York, but then he read something and talked to someone and he decided to move it to London where exciting cultural things were happening, and the fact this is mind-blowing makes even more (or less?) sense.
But none of this reduces the impact of the achievement here with a young and impressive cast on top form tackling a great deal of modern angst amid layers of truth and appearance. All with, in effect, English as a second language. Maybe it was the not being on home turf that really brought out Antonioni's genius in Blow Up?
And is the title a reference simply to the 'blowing up' of a photograph (beyond all reasonable proportions or meaning?) or a reflection of a kind of mental 'blow up' happening all around in Britain in 1966. Quite possibly both. Anyway, it's FAB.
Yes. Quite. Isn't it Antonioni's expose of a shallow upper-middle class elite? And Swinging London fitted the bill...?
Absolutely. Suddenly London was the right place and this was the right time. Perhaps it has a shallowness of surprising depth?