Zabriskie Point- Interview

Zabriskie Point- Hump Dogs

From a Spanish transfer.

Zabriskie Point- Ending

Zabriskie Point- Trailer

The review is up.

"Monica Vitti’s Hands"

I was going to post this on my own blog but then I decided since it is film related, I will share it here. I had the image in mind of Monica Vitti's hands in L'avventura where there is the contrast of her long, slender fingers against the rough, sharp rock and it offers a good metaphor to play off of. I was just happy to be able to actually find a photo online that put me in mind of my poem.


Monica Vitti’s Hands
*after Antonioni

Somewhere, a solid drop of upheld stone
soaks into the smallness of her
slendering tips, parted within the lines
of foam, an island that lives as everything
slips. Tangled, her hands grasp
rock, as struggle ceases her
clasp—her mind has dangled
stranger things, when it’s late
should she say it? She is trying to impress
what little is left of him, his fondness
worn, that primitive
being. Calling, her name
only melts with afternoon
sea, an image incomplete, still
beneath the devolving harbor
that unpieces. A woman weaves starfish
in her hair and goes unfound.

Copyright by Jessica Schneider

Dawn of the Dead(s) & Shaun of the Dead.

In light of all the zombie talk after having watched the boring I Am Legend, Anthony told me he has a love of zombie films and that the original Dawn of the Dead is one of his faves. They later made some zombie films where the zombies had Mohawks and cans of spray paint but I don't know much about those.

I've not seen any of these films below, but I am planning to watch the 1978 film soon. I don't really have any interest in seeing the remake, and the parody looks kind of silly. I much enjoyed Night of the Living Dead, but probably my favorite "dead" movie would have to be Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls. It's a film that gets labeled a "B" movie, but I think it is much more deserving than that label. I was not surprised to later learn that he was influenced by Bergman.

I always thought the creepiest film would have to involve the directing of Romero and Antonioni together. Bring in the walking dead with that imagery from L'Eclisse and you have a pretty scary film.

Bergman on Antonioni

It's odd that Bergman had a general disdain for Antonioni, given that they shared many qualities in their films and views on humanity. Not to mention dying within 24 hours of each other.

But, being a great artist means squat in regards to being a great critic.

L' Eclisse (M. Antonioni)

I was re-watching Antonioni's L'Eclisse, supposedly the final constellation of his trilogy (L'Avventura/La Notte/L'Eclisse). Out of the three I believe La Notte is the most accomplished, yet L'Eclisse always intrigued me. Style wise it has almost the best of Antonioni.
Some professional photographers I know had mentioned on separate occasions Antonioni's work as their favorite in Cinema, and watching L'Eclisse you can tell why. I think even architects (if Gaudi was still alive) would love Antonioni. His fetish for architectural structures is obvious and almost dominates the ending of the movie (look at these three close-ups of a white building).

While watching it, I remembered how Dan once described Antonioni's characters: we're allowed to observe them, as models, but not to explore them. Antonioni doesn't allow them to "open up", we don't know why Vittoria (Vitti) decided to end her long affair with her boyfriend Ricardo, neither we know why she's suffocated (literally) with her overwhelming despair.
I always liked Antonioni's fragmented method of presenting a space, he would introduce the space (inside of a room, a building...) with multiple weird-angled shots of elements inside that space, and doesn't allow us a comprehensive picture until later; i.e. the opposite of a classical spatial presentation. He's also always fascinated by random close-up (see still, tree leaves) something that the Japanese Teshigahara (Woman in The Dunes) used to do a lot too.

Overall why did Antonioni choose to conclude this movie without his protagonists? we are left with backgrounds we knew, places we visited during the movie, but with near-deserted streets and spaces, with a universal impending-doom feeling. Did our couple really not show up for their rendez-vous or did Antonioni lose interest in his protagonists? so he didn't really track them, since their story (irrespective if they reunite or no) is collateral and subjected to a more comprehensive ending... an ending that he hinted at by the final scenes? one shot in this bizarre ending is (see still) this random man reading a journal with the bolded title: "Race for Nuclear War, fragile world peace" and the man facing the almost empty street. Again, this ominous sensation (helped by the musical score) showing on the faces of random people shot. Did Antonioni decided to end his movie (and the trilogy of despair/malaise/alienation) by showing us that the whole world -as we know- is ending.?


On a very different note I noticed an inetersting similarity between Antonioni (especially in L'Eclisse) and a lot of Edward Hopper paintings. Something that makes sense, both dealt with alienation in the modern (mostly urban) world. Antonioni's still of the man outside the front door of a building is an example of that. Even in case of more than one person being present in a Hopper's painting, most of the time they wouldn't be communicating. Both artists were also depicting urban architectural structures in their work.

Bergman once said that Antonioni would put such emphasis on the "photographic" form of his scenes that he'd lose focus on what the scene should deliver. It's inetersting, since that is one of the major differences between the two directors (content and form), while Bergman's work is more "vertical" (trying to explore deep into his protagonists psyche) and he'd amend that by allowing his characters to revisit their past crises by lengthy monologues/dialogues (Persona/Winter Light....) or flashbacks (Wild Strawberries/Cries and Whispers/Autumn Sonata...). Antonioni is more of observing his characters, and their reactions towards their entourage.
I want to listen to the Criterion DVD commenatry once I have some time. I'm also planning to revisit La Notte, Blow Up, and Red Desert. Overall I put L'Eclisse high in a top 5 of his, maybe right under La Notte.
This is the review of the DVD by Dan, these are the last few minutes of the movie.

Wassim

The Yardbirds....

Doing Stroll On (a version of Train Kept A-Rollin') from Michelangelo Antonioni's great 1966 film Blowup:



Watch Jeff Beck do his Pete Townshend thang, and since I gave you Jimmy Page in the last post, here he is again.

L'Eclisse

Another great Antonioni film I reviewed.

Here is a clip- apparently, if you are willing to watch in installments, you can get the whole film.

Here it starts:



And here is its memorable end:



Go see the between things.

L'Avventura.

L’Avventura is a film I recently rewatched. It is one of those with stunning visuals but script wise, isn't as strong. Though the 1st hour and fifteen mins are great, I remember it turning a bit dull once the story switched to the love story.

Dan gave a review of it where he stated: "L’Avventura, despite its reputation for being innovative, fails for the exact same reasons that most less supposedly innovative films do- it has cardboard characters, does not follow through on an intriguing premise, throws in an unneeded romance that never convinces a viewer of its participants’ sparks, goes on far too long, and is far too pretentious."

I do agree that the film feels long, as compared to Antonioni's other films, but I don't know if I would agree that it is 'pretentious' per se, as compared to Goddard's Contempt. That was far more pretentious.



Fellow Cinemension blogger Anthony said: "It's visually beautiful, but not a great film. There were many parts that I'd totally forgotten about, and for good reason. There were some parts where I felt like I was watching a soap opera (the exchanges between Sandro and Claudia)."

Here is the trailer:



And I might add that I like the music. Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh duh... give it a listen.

Blowup

Michelangelo Antonioni's first English language film, Blowup, is a landmark and great film. I reviewed it here. I thought of it today after a fellow who does reviews for the No Ripcord site, where I post reviews, wrote a rather mediocre review. He has a habit of trying to sound deep and politically aware, and this is the second time I've caught him not reviewing a film, but spouting stuff that had nothing to do with the film. The first was his review of Oliver Stone's JFK.

I replied to him this way:

The film's actual title- in credits- is Blowup- no hyphen.

Second, you repeat one of the worst examples of critical cribbing, that I nailed when I reviewed this a year or two ago: http://www.cosmoetica.com/b441-des374.htm

The two leads have NO NAMES. Not once are their names uttered in the film. This claim is from a press kit, possibly, but not anywhere in the film. Where did you get the claim, other than from other reviews?

It should be fun to see his reply.

Anyway, here are The Yardbirds, from the film, and its trailer: