Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007), was an Italian modernist film director whose films are widely considered as some of the most influential in terms of film aesthetics.
I recently watched his 1962 film, L'eclisse ("The Eclipse") which, I read is considered the last of a trilogy Antonioni worked on (which includes L'avventura and La notte - two films I have not seen).
L'eclisse follows a young woman named Vittoria (played by the absolutely stunning Monica Vitti). She is getting out of a relationship with her fiancee and when she takes time away from him she meets an energetic young stockbroker, Piero (Alain Delon). She is unable to form a solid relationship with him because of the man's materialistic nature. The film is very artsy, having a slow pace and seems to put an emphasis on their built environment. There are some very beautiful, but very obscure shots because of this. I enjoyed how Antonioni seemed to take his time with the pacing of the story which gave the viewer a chance to appriciate the angles and the environment the actors are in.Through research I learned that L'eclisse won the Jury Special Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Watching this film made me realize they don't make them like they used to.
An Antonioni work that might ring a bell was his first english language film, Blowup (1966). It was set in London in the sixties where a professional photographer takes photos in a park and blows it up discovering a dead body, which compels the photographer to enlarge more photos and solve this mystery. I saw this one a while ago and have this strange memory that the character would kill models and take pictures of them dead and blow them up. I could be wrong though, maybe I'm just effed up and think about that sorta thing. Who knows. Anyways, beyond the surface, Blowup is about reality and how we perceive it or think we perceive it. I like how directors like Antonioni has a social or psychological dialogue to his flims. There is something deeper than what the images on screen tell us and this isn’t found in films of today.
Watching L'eclisse, you could see the apparent influences Antonioni has had on some modern day directors. In some shots you could see the panning technique that is trademark Wes Anderson and even the moments where there is extended dialogue between characters screamed out Tarantino. Antonioni had a way with aesthetics and making a shot very easy on the eyes. He was definately a master at his craft, laying the foundations for modern cinema.
