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New book to be published soon titled Antonioni's Blow-Up by Philippe Garner & David Alan Mellor; Murray Pomerance's Michelangelo Antonioni: Eight Meditations on Cinema to be published this March.

Maybe not completely on topic, perhaps it should be in the book thread, but since Ovader mentioned a new Blow Up book coming out, I thought it might be worth mentioning.

I work in a Library and we have a 'Focus On: Blowup' book that is surprisingly excellent. It was published in the 60s and is basically a collection of contemporary criticism and analysis. I didn't really like the film at all after my first viewing - I didn't understand it and I was puzzled by just about everything in it... I found this book and couldn't believe that weird swingin' sixties anti-thriller film had a whole book devoted to it. Anyway, this book totally turned my head around and now I think 'Blow Up' is one of the best, deepest and most rewarding films I've had the pleasure of viewing. The different authors that contribute articles all have vastly different interpretations of the film and I found them all to be valid and insightful, especially when compared and contrasted with each other.

I highly recommend tracking it down on inter-library loan if you are interested in the film - I'd especially recommend it if it leaves you cold and you don't really understand the praise it gets...

FOCUS ON BLOW UP is good, worth seeking out... Garner & Mellor's forthcoming from Steidl has been multiply delayed, latest date is Feb 2011 - do they have problems with photo rights, or something, I wonder?

Upcoming @ London's Barbican Feb 1-5 is a new stage play Antonioni Project based on L'AVVENTURA, L'ECLISSE & LA NOTTE, fascinating but apparently not completely fulfilling the promise of such a premise.... A glimpse...

Old news but I thought since the other thread is locked and some people were wondering why Monica Vitti did not release any statements upon Antonioni's death is because she suffers from Alzheimer's disease as mentioned in this 2006 article.

Ovader wrote:Murray Pomerance's Michelangelo Antonioni: Eight Meditations on Cinema to be published this March.

Out of curiosity, has anyone hereabouts gotten a hold of this yet? And if so, what are your thoughts? Seems it came out a week or two ago, and is available on Amazon. Scholarly analyses of Antonioni can be hit-and-miss (as with a lot of great filmmakers, I suppose), but everything I've read by Pomerance about his films has been absolutely insightful and engaging, leaving me wanting more, so I'm really looking forward to picking up a copy of this sometime soon.

oh yeah wrote:

Ovader wrote:Murray Pomerance's Michelangelo Antonioni: Eight Meditations on Cinema

Out of curiosity, has anyone hereabouts gotten a hold of this yet? And if so, what are your thoughts?

My copy just arrived (obtained from the Book Depository UK), and very initial impression is that it is thoroughly researched and contains some provoking ideas, but maybe some overreading of the cinematic texts in relation to other artforms and literature... Pomerance deals with the colour films out of chronological order....

Interesting, thanks. Odd that he would study them out of chronological order.

Not every day two new (albeit relatively minor) entries are added to Antonioni's filmography - a couple of promotional shorts from 1956 for a new daily newspaper then, IL GIORNO... Prints of the films have surfaced on Ebay....

Notizie per tutti/News for all a montage of news images...



Il giornale contesso/The disputed newspaper a little three handed comic drama shot in studio...



Really quite fascinating (although Ebay price steep)...

So what's up with Blow Up going out of print? Is Warner Bros going to release Blu ray and/or a Special edition, or is it safe to say they've done away with the film in a physical media format? It just seems to be way too much of a high profile film to not have an in print physical copy available.

Another book on Antonioni to be published later this year titled Antonioni: Centenary Essays.

This collection of new essays by leading film scholars addresses Michelangelo Antonioni as a pre-eminent figure in European art cinema, explores his continuing influence and legacy, and engages with his ability to both interpret and shape ideas of modernity and modern cinema.

Ovader wrote:Another book on Antonioni to be published later this year titled Antonioni: Centenary Essays.

amazon.com lists its U.S. availability as 25 October.

Nice 45 pic still sequence Antonioni's Environment on Criterion's Current... From the 4 released titles... Unfortunately no sign L'AVVENTURA & L'ECLISSE are being upgraded to HD on Blu Ray... Their frames grabbed from the very excellent SD transfers, but the difference is noticeable compared with the 2 colour titles on BR...

Trust me, to bike in the beautiful Ferrara just deserves a visit, but this fall will open a big exhibition in Palazzo Diamanti about Antonioni. It starts September, 30th.

Link (in Italian)

Looking at flights already... Clearly a must see...

In September an Italian magazine called Cabiria will publish a dossier about an Antonioni unrealized project, a feature documentary to be shot in Rio de Janeiro during 1954 Carnival. We have also included an unpublished treatment, and all materials have been kindly authorized by Enrica Fico Antonioni. If anyone is interested in an English edition, let me know.

bigP wrote:I've not managed to see Beyond the Clouds before, but the Second Sight UK release I saw last night did end with a long Malkovich monologue, beginning something like "The director's profession is a very particular one..." I hope this helps.

Hello,

I recently saw the version of Antonioni's "Beyond the Clouds" without Malkovich's full voice over at the end. Would anyone who has access to the full version be able to let me know exactly what he says word for word?

Thanks.

The full voicover as in L'Avant-Scene Cinema's published script/transcript of the film...

"The director's profession is a very particular one. Our effort is always towards the assimilation of new emotions, at learning new visual codes. We no longer live inside a film, we have been evicted, we are homeless people exposed to the gaze, the suspicions and irony of everyone, without being able to tell anybody about our personal adventure, which is not recorded in the film or in the screenplay; a memory, but an odd memory, as of a foreboding of which the film is but an incomplete verification. The complete report is the one made by our consciousness when the roaming is resumed, from one place to another, to see, to ask questions, to day-dream about things that become ever more elusive, in view of the next film. But we know that behind every image revealed, there is another image more faithful to reality, and in back of that image there is another, and yet another behind the last one, and so on... up to the true image of that absolute, mysterious reality, that no one will ever see."

Does anyone know where I can get subtitles for I tre volti?

What's the best book regarding antonioni's film language?

You could start with Antonioni's Visual Language by Ned Rifkin...

I seem to remember that Seymour Chatman's Antonioni, or the Surface of the World was pretty solid (and readable)

knives wrote:Does anyone know where I can get subtitles for I tre volti?

I don't, but I envy you seeing this film - if and when you do watch it, or if anyone else has seen it, I'd love to hear what it's like.

thanks ellipsis and repeat.

Antonioni's visual language is 88 bucks on amazon, pretty steep

seymour chatman's seems cheaper :)

Yeah it seems like there's been no subtitles made for it, but when I get to watching I'll report on it. Skimming the credits it seems to be an english language release though it is still the Italian dub.

Sloper wrote:

knives wrote:Does anyone know where I can get subtitles for I tre volti?

I don't, but I envy you seeing this film - if and when you do watch it, or if anyone else has seen it, I'd love to hear what it's like.

I TRE VOLTI was often rebroadcast on German then-woman's-station tm3, circa 15 years ago. I was just getting to know Antonioni then, and can't remember much. It seemed to be a rather bland contract work for Antonioni, which he tried to transcend via hybrid storytelling... Documentary vs. fiction and suff. Princess Soraya being interviewed about being a star...