Julia Roe

10/18/11

COM 232

“Blow Up” Review

The film “Blow Up” (1966) directed by Michelangelo Antonioni is a story of successful photographer in London named Thomas. He is discontent with his life, extremely lost and cannot seem to pinpoint what is real or what are just exaggerations of his own imagination. He constantly is bombarded with new situations that make him spiral out of control. This film is slightly difficult to appeal to for a general audience because of its strange perplexity, and lack of coherence. However, it is those at times abnormal and mysterious qualities of the film that make it noteworthy and draws the attention of the audience.

Although this innovative film may be hard to follow due to Antonioni’s many awkward scenes and choice of de-emphasis of verbal communication the film is still “beautifully built up with glowing images and color compositions that get us into the feelings of our man and into the characteristics of the mod world in which he dwells” (Crowther 1). This inability to follow and almost constant confusion adds a sense of shock and can snap the audience back into to paying attention to the film. For example, before the mime scene at the end of the film one could have found themselves drifting off a bit, but immediately brought back by the overbearingly interesting and weird aspects of that particular scene. Another example of Antonioni’s smart screenplay was when “upon developing the film [Thomas] notices something strange in the background. He gradually blows-up a part of the photo, which involves creating new prints in ever increasing close-ups. This lengthy sequence is done without music or dialogue. And yet it is endlessly fascinating to watch” (Haflidason 1). Antonioni’s way to demonstrate his story without going the more traditional route is innovative and forever interesting. In addition, “Blow-Up communicates on an almost completely visual level; nothing more than implied significance is verbalized. For such an obviously searching film, it is indeed unusual that there are no metaphysical discussions, no intimate exchanges, no analytical speculations” (Bowles 80) However, Antonioni still amazingly manages to bring the main character’s struggles to the screen, and his unique approach of doing so benefitted the audience by keeping their attention. Without some of the odd and interesting ways of sequencing certain scenes, the attention of the audience may have been lost.

If a viewer is seeking a film with a deeper not so obvious display of its meaning, one can find that in Blow Up. This film carries attributes of ‘double coded’ artwork. This “enable (s) representation of new art who interprets the artwork in the fictional world (the artwork made by the fictional world-making voice) as an example of a new art form potentially capable of independent existence in our world (Kafalenos 12). This is demonstrated in Blow Up through its theme of disconnect and abundance of offbeat scenes. It can lead the audience to ponder what the overall message Antonioni was trying to convey. After viewing this film, I thought he was possibly trying to say something about reality, illusion, and appearance and how they are all connected, but they do not necessarily always fall into neat categories. This message was found through the art of his cinematography and led to a greater meaning, which was demonstrated through double coding, which can be very difficult to do.

Film critics often refer to this type of film as “puzzle films or twist movies—[when] there are crucial differences between films that mislead an audience by encouraging it to draw false conclusions, and films that offer false data and thus demand misinterpretations” (Anderson 84). This component of Blow Up makes the film unique, and an aspect to what makes it so enticing. Even if one does not exactly appeal to this type of film, its innovative way of sequencing and story telling makes it important to see.

In conclusion although Blow Up wasn’t entirely an enjoyable film to watch, it definitely had aspects that make it a great one to analyze and learn from. From the films quirky-ness to its constant battle between real life and fiction, it made it possible to relay some meanings, stories, and film styles that are very unique, and difficult to come by. Making this film better for one to gain knowledge from, and good to interpret, but not necessarily a great film one would be excited to watch on a movie night due to its lengthy redundancy. However, nonetheless still a very important film to be exposed to.