Antonioni's Tragic Vision Style, Fonn and Idea in the Films ofMichelangelo Antonioni, with Especial Emphasis on His Masterpiece, Il deserto rosso R. Bruce Elder Rbwn~ n L'oeuvIc d'Antonioni cst e-aractCrisc par plusicn II pairci binaircs rccurrcntcs: natw"c/tcchnologic: l'ancietVlc nouveau; la personnc;1c.!1 :masses; :fusion/division; male/lemelle. Dans chacun:: des paircs, Ia relation dc.s idees l'une a."autre cst lrtos particul.iCn::. tellement particuI.i:;n::: que Ie.!! qu.cstioos pst rapport a sa. na.'t1ll'c soot finalcmcnt im5so1ubles. Car. en partie. 1. Ielatioo: entre lei deux i.d6cI- cst unc rc:laticm. d 'opp,osition. l..c nouveau attaquc r.acicn et ~c detroit; la tcclmo1ogic cn'Yahit 1c domainc de la nature; lcs m81cs exploitcnt lcs fcmcllcs. Mai.s cc n'cst qu'\LIlC pa.rti.c dc.la. relaticn. parcc que lcs- deux id6es de la pain: sont aussi complcmc.ntaircs;. chacum a. besom de }'autn: pour cxistcr ct pour sc dCveloppcr plcincment. Cettc relation -de bc:soin n'cst pas uniqucnxmt unc iclation cx:tc.rne qui s'cnsuit de J"cxigencc que chaque cntitC soitctrc circnnscritc pouretrc dCfinic, mais une relation intemc qui jouc sur la nature de chacun des Clements dans la relation. Aimi. un:: persOIlm DC pent dcvcnir v6ritablcm.cnt humain qq'cn Be mettanl cn relation avec un groupc,memc quand cc groupe menace de lui enIcvcr l'indiyidmlite cxigce pour son bumaniti. La relation entre .ses pain::s d"idCcs est don&: csscnticllcmcnt irrationellc. PIus tarei. l'ocuvn: d"Antmioni va cnco:re .plus loin dam sa rcprCscn1a.tion dc.la natum irrationnel1e c:Jc; cettc :relation. I.e CaraetC:tc irrationnel et irresoluble de la rclatiao. sc :revelG don<: COlDJDC ayant uno importance structurale fandamcnta1c dans Ie. fllms d'Antonioni. Tout C<JIIIIJlC Ie. berm de. tragedie. grecqUCI, los JlC",,,,nagcl principaux des filmi d'Antoniooi IC trouvcnt pris dans W1C situation imltioxmclle. situation caractcr.is6c par lao ncccS8it6 8UBli bien que par l'impossibilite ct domll:OJ cxigcnccs sODl antil:b6ti.ques et impossible. ~ndlicr. Ccpcdant a1& diffCrcncc des tragCdiea grceques, lc. illms d'Antonioni presentcnt )'cxtr6miti.dG cette -lituation non po: commc etmt la cana5qu.cnc:c d'Wl dC.faut de- e&raeteIC chez unc pcnJonnc four1:)C au. ambiuticusc, mais plutOt commc le :rcSsultat ordinai.rc des conditiom simplement cxistenticllcs. Nous cxamincr-omJ quclqucB-llIlS des filiations entre 18 viaioo -do. mood::: d"Antonioni ct lei id6cs des philos-opbcl cxitcntialistcs. swtout cclles de Martin Hcidcggcr. A Preliminary Methodological Note. This essay was written some time ago, while I was working at elaboerating an aesthetics of the cinema based on the'differences amongst what I tenned the Cinema of Presentation, the Cinema of illustration and the Cinema ofConstruction. Thesimplest possible decision procedure for distinguishing amongst these different cinematic modes (which, of course, do overlap in some measure in actual wOlks}-­ and, unfortunately, the least interesting, for it is what follows from these simple distinctions that is really of aesthetic importance-is to ask what category of explanation one would use in the main to explain why the local and global forms one discerns in a particular work·of art are what they are. Sometimes, when discussing a film (or a painting or a poem, for that matter), one explains why some arrangement of shots (or colour and shapes, or sounds) by petitioning to an idea that the work is supposed to convey-as one might discuss the colour of an heroic worker's clothes in a Socialist Realist painting, or the device of placing the hero near the picture plane or lit the apex of triangle of fonns, or the low-angle view on her as means for conveying the her greatness. When discussing a Mondrian, on the other hand, would be inclined to discuss the manner in which shape balances shape on the picture plane, the metrical arrangement of primary colours, or the efforts made to prevent adjacent colours from have different hapticities. (It would be erroneous to infer that the distinction between these two modes is coextensive with the distinction between representati9nal and apstract forms, since some representational works invite being considered in primarily formal tenns and and some abstract works invite being considered as embodiments of underlying Canadian Journal ofFilm Studies IRevlU canadiellne d'iludes cinimalographiquu Vol I No 2 2 R. Bruce Elder Antonioni's Tragic Vision 3 conceptual structure.) And again, sometimes one feels quite justified in discussing oppositions: between the old and the new, between tradition and some works (for example Tom Thomson's landscapes to say f0II!ls are what they innovation, between technology and nature, conformity and individual are because they render the repre~ented scene ~ccurately. ~e fipt mode I term illustrational, the second Construcuve, and th~third ~resentanonal. .. responsibility, authenticity and bad faith, the individual and the mass, and Antonioni I consider the finest illustrauonal filmmaker ever; hIS fIlmS are awareness and obliviousness. superlative cinema and they are sol.argely b~cause.they present a thoroughly worked-out world-view, a very movrng one, m a VISUally cogent form. So he Examples of each dichotomy can be found in any of his films. became my example of illustrational film~aking. 1fris. ,essay w~s an attempt to Consider the first of the dichotomies cited above: the opening shot of show the interrelation of style and concept rn Antoruom s work m order to work L'awentura has Anna walking out of a traditional Italian villa while off out some problems abo~t the relation betwee~ visual form ~nd idea. Some ~ders may realize, from readmg Image and IdentIty, that I be~leve that illustrattonal screen voices talk of something encroaching that threatens to suffocate that . cinema has inherent aesthetic problems. But no one can clatm I chose a weak body home. The camera pans, then comes to rest by framing a shot that on the of work on which to work out these problems. My desperate financial situation and my inability to secure a position that might left depicts modern apartment buildings under construction and on the have subsidized some research time forced me to abandon my work on a theory of right, off in the distance, St. Peter's Cathedral. Shortly after, we see Anna cinema. How I wish it were not so. I am bringing out this mere fragment of it now conversing with her father. During the conversation, she responds to her so that the effort I spent on it is not all in vain. father's inquiry about whether she has her yachting cap by remarking, In memoriam, Northrop Frye. "Nobody wears them anymore." Similarly in the background, behind the photographer Thomas of the In his now famous statement introducing L'avventura to the 1960 film Blow-up as he drives around London, are old buildings juxtaposed Cannes Film Festival, Antonioni put forth a ideas that seems to me cheek-and-jowl against new ones. In the heart of mod London, the fundamental to his entire world-view. The statement reads in part as photographer discovers a shop filled with relics of begone eras but, follows. significantly, in which they are preserved in a fonn that resembles a junk "There exists in the world today a very serious break between . heap. science on the one hand, always projecting into the future and Many of Antonioni's characters fIlms define themselves essentially by each day ready to deny what it was the day before, if that will their adherence either to the old world, the world of tradition, or to the new enable it to advance its conquest of the future even by a world, the world of technology. The man in the antique shop/junk shop in fraction...between science on the one handand a fixed, still Blow-up, the intellectual Riccardo ofL'eclisse and, to a certain extent, the morality on the other, the faults of which are perfectly apparent to writer Giovanni Pontano ofLa nolle are figures whose basic loyalties are to man, but which still continues to stand. the past the past; all are essentially curators of the past, people who act to From the moment he is born, man is burdened with a heavy preserve traditions and the traditional. And all do whatever they can to load of feelings. I do not say these feelings are old or out of date, deny that change takes place. Other characters such as Ugo and Corrado of but they are entirely unsuited to his needs; they condition him Il deserto rosso and the businessmen of Zabriskie Point owe their without aiding him, fetter him without ever showing him a way allegiance to the annihilating present, the present that sweeps away what out of his difficulties. has gone before it, and more specifically, to the forces of innovation. And yet man has not succeeded-so it seems-in In Antonioni's films, the force that is primarily responsible for unburdening himself of this inheritance. He acts, he hates, he suffers, impelled by moral forces and myths which were already innovation is technological. We repeatedly see cranes or steam shovels or old in the time of Homer. Which is an absurdity in our day, on the other mechanical equipment tearing down old buildings and building now eve of man's first journey to the moon. But that is the way thins ones. Antonioni does not conceive of technological culture simply as are. opposed to tradition; he also and more importantly thinks of it as at odds For example, what do you think this eroticism that has with that which we need to be fully human.