April 2, 2019 (XXXVIII:9) Michelangelo Antonioni: BLOW-UP (1966, 111 min.) DIRECTOR Michelangelo Antonioni WRITING Michelangelo Antonioni developed the story from a short story by Julio Cortázar, "Las babas del diablo." Antonioni wrote the screenplay with Tonino Guerra and English dialogue provided by Edward Bond. PRODUCER Carlo Ponti MUSIC Herbie Hancock CINEMATOGRAPHY Carlo Di Palma EDITING Frank Clarke ART DIRECTION Assheton Gorton COSTUME DESIGN Jocelyn Rickards The film won the distinguished Palm d’Or at Cannes, and it was nominated for for Best Director (Michelangelo Antonioni) and for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen (Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, and Edward Bond). CAST Vanessa Redgrave...Jane Sarah Miles...Patricia David Hemmings...Thomas John Castle...Bill Jane Birkin...The Blonde (1948) and L’Amorosa menzogna (1949), particularly well Gillian Hills...The Brunette received, the latter competing at Cannes. These efforts won the Peter Bowles...Ron attention of Vallani Film, securing funding to make his first Veruschka von Lehndorff...Verushka (as Verushka) fictional feature in Milan. His first fictional feature Cronaca di Julian Chagrin...Mime un amore (1950) established a “narrational structure of a search Claude Chagrin...Mime with competing urges of desire and death” that later, once again, emerged “in his later works” (Senses). A decade after his MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI (b. September 29, 1912 in fictional feature debut, his work began to be recognized at Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy—d. July 30, 2007 (age 94) in Cannes. L'avventura (1960) won the Jury Prize and was Rome, Lazio, Italy) was known for writing (33 credits) and nominated for the Palm d’Or, and L'eclisse (1962) won the Jury directing (34 credits) films that are “aesthetically complex – Special Prize and was nominated for the Palm d’Or. His most critically stimulating though elusive in meaning.” His work has famous film, 1966’s Blow-Up, won the 1967 Palm d’Or, and it been described as engaging the viewer in a manner that compels occasioned Antonioni’s first and only Oscar nominations for Best her or him “to respond imaginatively and independent of the Directing and Best Writing. Professione: reporter (1975) and film” (Senses of Cinema). In the early 1940s, he briefly wrote for Identificazione di una donna (1982), once again, earned him the Rome-based, Neorealist journal Cinema before parting ways, Palm d’Or nominations, and the latter won him the 35th due to his interest in “alternative technical practices and Anniversary Prize at Cannes. In 1995, he was given an Honorary filmmaking styles” (Senses). In 1947, he made his first Award at the Academy Awards. These are some of the other documentary short People of the Po Valley. After this venture, he films he directed: The Lady Without Camelias (1953), I vinti continued to write criticism, screenplays, translations of French (1953), Love in the City (segment "Tentato suicidio") (1953), Le literature, and more documentary films: N.U. – Nettezza urbana Amiche (1955), Il Grido (1957), La Notte (1961), Red Desert Antonioni: BLOW-UP—2 (1964), Zabriskie Point (1970), The Passenger (1975), The (1993), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Don't Drink the Water Mystery of Oberwald (1980), and Beyond the Clouds (1995). (TV Movie) (1994), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and Deconstructing Harry (1997). JULIO CORTÁZAR (b. August 26, 1914 in Brussels, Belgium—d. February 12, 1984 (age 69) in Paris, France) was an Argentine novelist, short story writer, and essayist associated with what has been called the “Latin American Boom.” One of his early stories, “House Taken Over,” “came to him in a dream,” and was published in 1946 in a magazine edited by Jorge Luis Borges. Once he moved to Paris in 1951, he began publishing “in earnest.” While in Paris, “he worked as a translator and interpreter for UNESCO and other organizations” (Paris Review). Cortázar wrote numerous short stories, and in 1967, English translations were published as End of the Game and Other Stories, later re-titled Blow-up and Other Stories. Cortázar published four novels during his lifetime, including Hopscotch (Rayuela, 1963). Though he resided primarily in Paris after 1951, he regularly visited Argentina until he was officially exiled in the VANESSA REDGRAVE (b. January 30, 1937 in Blackheath, early 1970s by the Argentine junta. London, England, UK) is an English actress of stage, screen and television (143 credits), and a political activist. She is a 2003 HERBIE HANCOCK (b. April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois) is American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee, and received the 2010 an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and BAFTA Fellowship. On screen, she has starred in scores of films actor. He started his career with Donald Byrd and shortly after and is a six-time Oscar nominee, winning the Academy Award joined the Miles Davis Quintet where he helped to redefine the for Best Supporting Actress for the title role in the film Julia role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary (1977). Her other nominations were for Morgan: A Suitable Case architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, Hancock for Treatment (1966), Isadora (1968), Mary, Queen of Scots experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles. His best- (1971), The Bostonians (1984) and Howards End (1992). These known compositions include "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon are some of her other appearances: Behind the Mask (1958), BBC Man,” "Maiden Voyage", "Chameleon", and the singles "I Sunday-Night Theatre (TV Series) (1958), Love Story (TV Thought It Was You" and "Rockit.” He has composed for 26 Series) (1965), A Farewell to Arms (TV Mini-Series) (1966), A films and video shorts, and he won an Oscar for Best Music for Man for All Seasons (1966), Blow-Up (1966), Camelot (1967), the 1986 film ‘Round Midnight. These are some of the other The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), A Quiet Place in the films and video shorts he has composed for: Herbie Hancock Country (1968), The Sea Gull (1968), Oh! What a Lovely War Presents Living Jazz (1996 Video Game), Blow-Up (1966), (1969), The Trojan Women (1971), The Devils (1971), Murder Herbie (1966 Short), Death Wish (1974), A Soldier's Story on the Orient Express (1974), Out of Season (1975), The Seven- (1984), Herbie Hancock: Rockit (1984 Video short), Action Per-Cent Solution (1976), Agatha (1979), Sing Sing (1983), Jackson (1988), Colors (1988), Harlem Nights (1989), Jo Jo Wetherby (1985), Comrades (1986), The Ballad of the Sad Cafe Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986), Herbie Hancock: Dis Is da (1991), The House of the Spirits (1993), Little Odessa (1994), Drum (1995 Video short), The Best of Latin Jazz (1997 Video Mission: Impossible (1996), Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997), Mrs short), Janet Jackson: All Nite - Don't Stop (2004 Video short), Dalloway (1997), Deep Impact (1998), Lulu on the Bridge Herbie Hancock: Possibilities (2006 Documentary), and (1998), Cradle Will Rock (1999), Girl, Interrupted (1999), The 3 Solidarity of Arts (2014 TV Movie). Kings (2000), Crime and Punishment (2002), Atonement (2007), Coriolanus (2011), Anonymous (2011), Richard III (2016), and CARLO DI PALMA (b. April 17, 1925 in Rome, Lazio, Italy— The Aspern Papers (2018). d. July 9, 2004 (age 79) in Rome, Lazio, Italy) was an Italian cinematographer (60 credits), renowned for his work on both SARAH MILES (b. December 31, 1941 in Ingatestone, Essex, color and black-and-white films, whose most famous England, UK) is an English theatre and film actress (37 credits). collaborations were with Michelangelo Antonioni and Woody Her best-known films include The Servant (1963), Blowup Allen. These are some of the films he worked on: Lauta mancia (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970), for which she was nominated (1957), L'impiegato (1960), It Happened in '43 (1960), The for an Oscar, and Hope and Glory (1987). Some of her other Assassin (1961), Pigeon Shoot (1961), Divorce Italian Style films include: Term of Trial (1962), The Ceremony (1963), Those (1961), Three Fables of Love (1962), Love in Four Dimensions Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from (segment "Amore e vita") (1964), Red Desert (1964), Terror- London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (1965), Time Lost and Creatures from the Grave (1965), For Love and Gold (1966), Time Remembered (1966), Lady Caroline Lamb (1972), The Blow-Up (1966), On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Hireling (1973), The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973), The Who... (1967), The Bitch Wants Blood (1969), The Pizza Triangle Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976), The Big Sleep (1970), The Pacifist (1970), Identification of a Woman (1982), (1978), Priest of Love (1981), Venom (1981), Ordeal by The Black Stallion Returns (1983), Hannah and Her Sisters Innocence (1984), Steaming (1985), Hope and Glory (1987), (1986), Radio Days (1987), Alice (1990), Shadows and Fog White Mischief (1987), The Touch (1992), Days of Grace (2001), (1991), Husbands and Wives (1992), Manhattan Murder Mystery and Interlude City of a Dead Woman (2016). Antonioni: BLOW-UP—3 (1965), Blow-Up (1966), End in Tears (TV Movie) (1966), The Prisoner (TV Series) (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), Antony and Cleopatra (1972), Man of La Mancha (1972), I, Claudius (TV Mini-Series) (1976), The New Avengers (TV Series) (1976), Reilly: Ace of Spies (TV Mini-Series) (1983), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (TV Series) (1984), Miss Marple: A Murder Is Announced (TV Mini-Series) (1985), King David (1985), Inspector Morse (TV Series) (1991), RoboCop 3 (1993), Sparrow (1993), Poirot (TV Series) (2000), Gods and Generals (2003), A Harlot's Progress (TV Movie) (2006), Midsomer Murders (TV Series) (2007), and I Against I (2012). James Brown: “Antonioni, Michelangel” (Senses of Cinema) The films of Michelangelo Antonioni are aesthetically complex – critically stimulating though elusive in meaning.