[Quick Summary: A photographer follows a couple in the park, and unwittingly may have photographed a murder.]
In its day, audiences buzzed about this film because of the nudity, and orgy scene.*
However, it remains a significant film because it broke new ground in how to tell a story, and influenced many other filmmakers later.**
I went into this script cold and was not surprised that not all the loose ends get tied up by the ending. However, I did learn two things:
1) Antonioni is not interested in plot, but rather "the perceptive nature of reality and the often baffling relationship of truth and perception."
In fact, Antonioni himself stated:
The search for reality in a photographed image provides the central plot for Blow-up.
2) Use the search/process, not the answer, to flip expectations.
Many scripts about getting to the answer. This one is about the search/process.
It is heavy with photos + people, and exploring how the two interact. Is reality in the photos? Outside the photos? What is truth? Or was it my perception?
The writers use that dynamic to flip our expectations.
For example, in the scene below:
- Thomas (photographer) has just caught Girl trying to steal his camera from his studio.
- He'd taken photos of her and her older lover earlier in the park.
- She has just asked what he wants for the photos, and taken her top off.
- Note the moment she flips [brackets below] from chasing the photos (her past) to disregarding them for the present. Is reality in those images or in this studio?
- Note how he reacts to her interest in him>> the photos. Is it truth or only his perception?
Resume on the Girl. She puts her blouse down and stands waiting. They look at each other, suddenly serious and tense. Camera moves with Thomas as he goes up to her, ducking under the plume rack, and places his hands on her shoulders.
He looks at her silently.
Reverse angle shot of them looking at one another. He moves away and she turns to look at him.
THOMAS: Get dressed. I'll cut out the negatives you want.
He goes off down the gangway leading to the darkrooms. He opens the purple door of the first one.
Inside the darkroom the door slides open, revealing Thomas in close-up. Camera follows him as he goes to the table and takes the reel from the camera. He toys with it, as if still undecided whether to give it to her or not. Then he puts it out of sight and picks up another roll of film, and turns back to the door.
He comes back into the studio and looks round, toying with the film still in hand. At first glance it seems the Girl has disappeared. The music is now cool, quiet jazz.
The Girl's legs are visible but the rest of her body is obscured by the lilac back-drop. He pulls it from the wall and looks behind it. She is standing still, half-naked, with her arms folded across her breasts. Thomas comes toward her behind the purple paper, holding it back, then letting it fall, obscuring them both from view.
Thomas comes up to the Girl and tosses her the roll of film.
She takes it and moves away, camera following her. But after one or two steps she stops and turns back. She looks at Thomas almost tenderly. Then gives him a kiss. A fleeting kiss. And again moves away. [Flip moment: She's gotten what she came for. Why doesn't she flee?]
This time it is his turn to follow her. She stands in close-up against the purple screen, and he takes her in his arms, holds her tight and kisses her. This, too, is brief.
Then, with an arm round her shoulders, he leads her gently towards the bedroom. As they pass, camera tracks in rapidly to the Girl's blouse as she tosses the reel of film onto it.
They reach the doorway to the bedroom. She wraps her arms round his neck...when the doorbell rings. They both pause.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Since this script is not driven by a formula or "find X," I found these flip moments much more interesting.
Blow-Up (1966)
by Michelangelo Antonioni and Tonino Guerra; English dialogue in collaboration with Edward Bond
Inspired by a short story by Julio Cortazar
*Interestingly, Roger Ebert notes that today's audiences might consider them tame, and would likely be more offended by the photographer's contempt of his models.
***Including Coppola's The Conversation (1974) and de Palma's Blow Out (1981).
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