the passing of a great one

i couldn't possibly do as well as some of the writers who are sharpening up their pens at this time but, i'll take my shot at it.

you see, michelangelo antonioni has passed on to the great beyond.

cinema has lost another of it's giants as we stumble on into the 21st century. antonioni was known for his depictions of alienation and with his experimintation with the art form itself by the use of editing, camera placement, mise en scene etc. the whole raft of trips and techniques that a film maker was afforded at whatever time in the last fifty years he worked - he used, subverted and made his own to tell his view of the world and by commentary, modern civilization.

my first encounter with him was with 'red desert' and while it's a masterpiece of modern cinema, with the framing and the long takes along grimy city streets - echoing it's depiction of a marriage that fails slowly before the viewer's eyes - it's the film 'blowup' that made me a fan.

adapted from a novel by julio cortázar - it is the story of a photographer in the midst of the hedonism in the sixties london who believes he may have photographed a murder. then again, he may have not.

classic modernims, questioning the 'objectivity' of cinema, of perception, of the entire mode of where the 'frame' is, and what it means to quest for the 'truth'.


rest dear sir, your work has left us staggered and we, now are left in a place of sadness you depicted so well.