When Michelangelo Antonioni died (almost to a day a year a go) we wrote this:
It is a “no-good-news-for-the-film buffs” week on BYT:
Michelangelo Antonioni, one of the most innovative and distinctive film-makers of the 20th century (and my personal all time favorite), has died at the age of 94. The Italian director died at his home in Rome on Monday evening, fewer than 24 hours after the death of Ingmar Bergman, that other great giant of European art-house cinema.
Alongside his near contemporary Federico Fellini, Antonioni signalled a break with the “neorealist” style that flourished in Italy at the end of the second world war. In contrast to the working class parables of Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini, his films were cool and stylised, traditionally focusing on the experiences of an alienated bourgeoisie.
NOW after a million Bergman retrospectives, National Gallery of Art is paying homage to the man that brought us “L’Avventura” (one of my favorite movies of all time), “L’Eclisse” (one of my favorite movies of all time) and “Blow Up” (one of my favorite movies all of all time, though sadly not included in the 8 part series) and the reason why I am obsessed with Criterion Collection.
It kicks off this weekend, and is, well, free as free can be and as quality as quality gets:
Full, printable schedule:
(http://www.nga.gov/programs/film/italian_treasures.shtm)
Michelangelo Antonioni
Luca Verdone in person
July 19 at 2:00PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
Luca Verdone’s beautiful and intimate study of Antonioni was made for Italian television in the 1980s. Extended interviews, historical footage of the director with many of his favorite actors, and clips from his work comprise the portrait. (Luca Verdone, 2005, digital beta, 60 minutes)
I vinti (The Vanquished)
July 19 at 4:30PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
Three morality tales Antonioni-style: shy Jean-Pierre Mocky flashes money to get accepted but finds more than he bargained for; eccentric poet Peter Reynolds stops at nothing to get his name in the news; while cigarette smuggler Franco Interlenghi meets with a different sort of trouble. Filmed in three countries, all of which imposed censorship hurdles, I vinti bears the Antonioni trademark—the meanings are in the details. (1952, 35 mm, Italian with subtitles, 110 minutes)
La Signora senza camelie (Lady without Camellias)
July 25 at 2:30PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
Playing on the title of Dumas’ La dame aux camellias, Antonioni follows Milanese shop girl (Lucia Bosè) as her native good looks and charm vault her to movie stardom. When she falters in the challenging roles and begins to oscillate between a domineering producer and a suave diplomat, she finds herself unable to advance or retreat. “The characterization of mediocrity,” noted a contemporary critic, “is so painfully honest that it belongs more to a novel of irony and sensibility than to a movie of mass appeal.” (1953, 35 mm, Italian with subtitles, 106 minutes)
Le amiche (The Girlfriends)
preceded by Gente del Po (People of the Po)
July 27 at 4:30PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
Recently returned to her native Turin following her success in Rome, fashion stylist Clelia (Eleanora Rossi-Drago) opens a salon and attempts to bond with the local fashionistas. Antonioni’s loose adaptation of a Cesare Pavese story artfully charts realigning relationships amid class conflicts. The director’s first critical success, featuring a tour-de-force tracking of a party on the beach, Le amiche won the Silver Lion at the 1955 Venice Film Festival. (1955, 35 mm, Italian with subtitles, 100 minutes)
Antonioni’s early neo-realist documentary Gente del Po, shot during World War II, remained unedited until 1947 and suffered a loss of footage in the interim.
Il grido (The Outcry)
August 2 at 1:00PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
“The landscape I remember from my childhood,” said Antonioni about the wintry Po Valley vistas of Il grido, the first blossoming of his vintage style in its evocation of loneliness and diligent avoidance of judgment. A sugar refinery worker (Steve Chochran) is rejected by his lover (Alida Valli) and wanders disconsolate with his daughter until, after other dissatisfying encounters, he returns to see if his former life can be salvaged. (1957, 35 mm, Italian with subtitles, 112 minutes)
L’avventura (The Adventure)
August 2 at 4:00PM
August 10 at 4:30PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
A woman (Lea Massari) disappears along a rocky stretch of beach and her friend (Monica Vitti) tries to find her. This simple stratagem is the premise of Antonioni’s chic and existential breakthrough, a film that cleverly challenges all expectations for clarification or resolution. Denounced by many, including the Catholic Legion of Decency, and winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, the film’s every frame is an exercise in modernist composition. When asked what really happened to Massari’s character in the film, Antonioni himself replied, “I don’t know. Someone told me she committed suicide, but I don’t believe it.” (1960, 35 mm, Italian with subtitles, 145 minutes)
La notte (The Night)
August 16 at 4:30PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
A day and night in the life of a modern marriage, set against the gleaming architecture of Milan, finds La notte’s couple (Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau) visiting a dying friend, a night club, and a protracted party, until their night ends in a tormented dawn encounter at a deserted golf course. A resolute analysis of bourgeois psychology and compassionate examination of relationships, La notte contains the director’s most stunning set piece, Moreau’s lone walk through Milan’s soulless streets. (1961, 35 mm, Italian with subtitles, 120 minutes)
L’eclisse (The Eclipse)
August 17 at 4:30PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
The last entry in a trilogy with L’avventura and La notte, L’eclisse again considers relationships in modern society and questions whether solitude is a natural state. Vittoria (Monica Vitti) concludes an affair with Riccardo (Francisco Rabal) and drifts into another one with stockbroker Pierre (Alain Delon). The film’s strength lies in its use of sense impressions—a trip to a provincial airport, the sound of the wind, a moment of silence for a dead co-worker, and most celebrated of all, a seven-minute evocative montage. (1962, 35 mm, Italian with subtitles, 125 minutes)
Deserto rosso (Red Desert)
August 24 at 4:30PM
East Building Concourse, Large Auditorium
Shot in the stark, mechanized landscapes of Ravenna where Monica Vitti, an engineer’s wife, suffers a sort of breakdown, Red Desert famously concludes with Antonioni’s thoughtfully apocalyptic resolution—a parable about birds who won’t fly into the yellow industrial smoke. The director experimented with Red Desert’s color as boldly as with its narrative, carefully designing a scheme to correspond with states of mind. (1964, 35 mm, Italian with subtitles, 120 minutes)
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