Writing even as layperson about Antonioni, one wonders whether one needs to master, for example, semiotics or some other discipline to earn the right to comment. Discussion of Antonioni films can be fruitfully technical or philosophically rich. When the films invite comment, they seem to invite either disparagement for being too intellectual or praise given in either technical or theoretical language. For my taste, too many commentators disparage his films as elitist and difficult.
Watching an Antonioni film might involve taking part in a different kind of cinema than watching the latest John Woo blockbuster. To say that Michelangelo Antonioni changed how some of us watch film is a truism. Maybe, every film shapes how we watch other movies.
Antonioni makes me more aware of the architecture of scene—that is just one aspect of his work. Discussion of this would involve considerable work that one can read in the literature about his work. Antonioni uses sound in unique ways.
What makes commenting on any of these films difficult is their immense beauty—beautiful on many levels and in multifarious ways. His movies do entertain—I watch them in utter fascination. I have watched them in theatres with other ordinary filmgoers who are also in silent rapture.
Famous like Hitchcock for comments about actors, Antonioni works with excellent actors though Vanessa Redgrave made light of her work in one of the films. However, Jack Nicholson seemed to relish being part of one of them.
"L'eclisse" still lies beyond my ability to analyse it with the freshness this lovely work of art deserves. It is easy for reviewers to disparage this or that aspect of it. One might consider the closing a cheap and lazy ending. I find that ending one of the greatest moments in cinema.
Watching an Antonioni film might involve taking part in a different kind of cinema than watching the latest John Woo blockbuster. To say that Michelangelo Antonioni changed how some of us watch film is a truism. Maybe, every film shapes how we watch other movies.
Antonioni makes me more aware of the architecture of scene—that is just one aspect of his work. Discussion of this would involve considerable work that one can read in the literature about his work. Antonioni uses sound in unique ways.
What makes commenting on any of these films difficult is their immense beauty—beautiful on many levels and in multifarious ways. His movies do entertain—I watch them in utter fascination. I have watched them in theatres with other ordinary filmgoers who are also in silent rapture.
Famous like Hitchcock for comments about actors, Antonioni works with excellent actors though Vanessa Redgrave made light of her work in one of the films. However, Jack Nicholson seemed to relish being part of one of them.
"L'eclisse" still lies beyond my ability to analyse it with the freshness this lovely work of art deserves. It is easy for reviewers to disparage this or that aspect of it. One might consider the closing a cheap and lazy ending. I find that ending one of the greatest moments in cinema.