Over under sideways down
Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni has died at the age of 94.
I make particular mention of Antonioni’s death because Blowup remains one of my favourite films. If you love film yet you’ve never seen Blowup, you owe it to yourself to watch in awe and then discuss with your friends what it all means.
I first had the pleasure of seeing this wonderful film in a high-school Spanish class (yes, Spanish) after an assignment to read Julio Cortázar’s short story “Las babas del diablo” (”The Devil’s Drool”), the story upon which Antonioni based his film. I really recommend reading the short story before seeing the film, as it informs the film in a way that makes some aspects more transparent — and others more opaque. And even if you don’t like the movie, you’ll still love the smashing (quite literally, thanks to Jeff Beck’s finale) performance by The Yardbirds, at the height of their Beck/Page glory. Good stuff.