Behind the Scenes With My Favorite Actors: Monica Vitti in Antonioni's L'Avventura

***Stills captured from the Criterion Collection Special Edition DVD***

Woody Allen On Bergman and Antonioni

While I realize not all of my Moon In The Gutter readers share my love for Woody Allen, I thought this link was well worth posting. Here is a really nice new interview with Allen from Time.Com where he discusses the recent passing of both Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni. It's humorous, heartfelt and an honest look at both men through the eyes of a fellow artist and major fan.
On a totally unrelated note I recently came across this great little quote by filmmaker Neil Labute on Allen's MANHATTAN, from thereeler.com, which is why I am posting this picture. MANHATTAN might be my favorite Allen picture with Mariel Hemingway's turn as Tracy being one of my favorite performances of the seventies. Anyway, I liked the quote and I liked this little interview with Woody on the passing of two giants. Give it a look:

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1648917,00.html

The Art of the Movie Poster: Antonioni's The Passenger and Blow-Up (Polish Versions)

My Favorite Closing Shots: Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966) and John G. Avildsen's Save the Tiger (1973)

Antonioni: Three Scenes

Every film that Antonioni shot has at least one sequence that is, at the very least, totally awe inspiring and never less than extremely moving. Here are three of the most celebrated.
First up are the final shots of L'ECLISSE which is one of the most memorable endings in all of screen history. No shot is repeated and the silence is overpowering, this is film making at its most subtle and finest.

Next up is the closing sequence from ZABRISKIE POINT. Set at first to silence and then to Pink Floyd's CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE EUGENE. This is simply one of the most mind blowing series of shots ever committed to celluloid, with Antonioni bravely exposing the materialistic baggage we carry with us constantly as the disposable junk much of it is. I still find this series of shots to be as breathtaking as anything in cinema, or art in general for that matter. The sixties end here.

Finally the astonishing final one shot take from THE PASSENGER. I saw this on the big screen a couple of years back and it caused me to audibly gasp. Before CGI made the impossible very boring, this amazing and magical sequence stands as a reminder of the possibilities of cinema.

My tribute to the late and already much missed Michelangelo Antonioni will continue tomorrow. Thanks to the people who have been reading and helping me pay tribute to this extraordinary man.

Antonioni On Region 1 DVD

Antonioni is currently represented on DVD with a scattering a truly fine discs, a couple of decent ones and then a handful of very collectible out of print items. While most of his best films are represented, a couple of his most important are still unavailable.
Here is a brief guide for those interested. This is more of a look at the quality of the dvds and not the films themselves.
STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR: (1950) This is the earliest work by Antonioni currently available and it is put out by the great No Shame dvd company. No Shame has been one of the most exciting companies to emerge in the past few years and this disc was most welcome, even if it is not among the maestro's best works. The print is a bit worn, which isn't surprising considering the age of the film, but NoShame have done a decent job with it. The most notable thing about this disc is the welcome second disc of extras that include an interview with cinematographer Guiseppe Rotuno, actress Lucia Bose and a handful of others connected to the film. Antonioni is himself seen at a touching modern screening of the film. No Shame's set is a valuable addition to anyone film lovers dvd library.

LE AMICHE (1955): This is another one of the few of his early films that is currently available. While not among his greatest works this film is well worth searching out even though the dvd is disappointing. While not the disaster of some of Image's dvds, the print offered here isn't anything spectacular but is reasonably clean and sharp. The disc's biggest drawback is that no extras are offered to put this film into any kind of historical perspective.

IL GRIDO (1957): This is one of his first truly great films which makes it all the more disappointing that Kino's bare bones disc is all that is currently available. The print used here is actually a little worse that LE AMICHE which makes this disc a real missed opportunity. Many of Antonioni's reoccurring themes really kick into gear with this film and it is an essential work.

L'AVVENTURA (1960): Arguably his first great masterpiece, although IL GRIDO could make that claim as well, L'AVVENTURA is available in a remarkable set from Criterion. The picture is miraculous looking for the most part with just some very minor damage and the extras are exhaustive. They include an informative commentary by Gene Youngblood and a William Arrowsmith essay on the first disc while an hour long documentary takes up most of the second disc. My favorite extra on Criterion's great set is Jack Nicholson reading some of the master's writings. Nicholson is very reverent and his unmistakable voice reading these is wonderful to hear. Criterion's double disc set is essential.

L'ECLISSE (1962): Criterion again presents another Antonioni masterpiece in a great two disc set that features an incredible looking print of the film including an authoritative commentary by Richard Pena on disc one while disc two contains the great Italian documentary THE EYE THAT CHANGED CINEMA. Also included on disc two is a fascinating interview with Antonioni friend Carlo di Carlo that really manages to give some real insight into the man. Like Criterion's L'AVVENTURA, their set of L'ECLISSE is highly recommended. I actually prefer L'ECLISSE to the more celebrated L'AVVENTURA with special mention going to both Alain Delon and Monica Vitti.

LA NOTTE (1963): Unfortunately Criterion didn't put out Antonioni's next feature, the striking LA NOTTE starring Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau. Fox Lorber's disc is terrible. The print hasn't been restored properly, it feels overly digitized at times and annoyingly shaky at others. No extras are included. One can only hope that Criterion eventually puts out this important film and gives it the kind of quality release it deserves.

RED DESERT (1964): How is it that one of the greatest films ever made is currently absent on dvd? Image's dvd , featuring a hazy and messy widescreen transfer, is a bare bones and very out of print affair that is currently going for up to $300.00 dollars on Amazon and Ebay. I love this film so much and treasure my Image disc even if it is a bit of a disaster. RED DESERT is one of the major must get re-released discs on the market.

BLOW-UP (1966): While Criterion had put this massively important film out on laser disc, Warner Home Video are responsible for this disappointing dvd. The picture quality is solid for the most part but the sound is a mess. This film is so dependant on it's sound design and Warner's disc is mixed way too low. I always have to crank my speakers when watching this disc and it is extremely irritating. Even more disappointing is the lack of extras, if ever a film demanded a good set of extra features it is BLOW-UP. The only supplement offered is a pointless commentary by critic Peter Brunette (who wrote the valuable book THE FILMS OF MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI) that I have still not managed to make it all the way through. Along with Richard Schickle's irritating ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA commentary, it is one of the most unlistenable I have ever heard. BLOW-UP is a hugely exciting film and it deserves an engaged and informative commentary, it's a shame that Brunette didn't deliver a better one. A Criterion set of this film would be a major release.

THE PASSENGER (1975): A fine and welcome release, Sony's dvd offers a beautifully restored print of one of the maestro's greatest works. More extras would have been welcome, I would love to see an interview with the miraculous Maria Schneider but the disc does offer two fine commentaries. The track by screenwriter Mark Peploe assisted by journalist Aurora Irvine is informative and entertaining but it is Jack Nicholson's track that is the real stunner. Not too many stars of Jack's stature would bother with a little European Art film they made over thirty years ago but it is obvious listening to this track that this is the film Jack is most proud of. His stories are fascinating, his love for Antonioni is infectious, and one gets the feeling he would go to the end of the earth for this film. It's one of my favorite commentaries of all time and it couldn't have been featured on a better film.

BEYOND THE CLOUDS (1995): Like RED DESERT, this dvd has slipped out of print and now fetches huge prices. Antonioni's erotic and undervalued late period film features Sophie Marceau and Irene Jacob among others. Image's hard to find dvd offers just a decent print of the film and the audio is strangely missing some of the voice over narration but it is notable in that it includes the great documentary TO MAKE A FILM IS TO BE ALIVE. This film, while not one of his greatest, is an extremely valuable addition to his filmography and is in need of a re-release.

EROS (2004): Antonioni's final film is a short in this flawed anthology film. His short is the best to my eyes and the disc also includes his remarkable short EYE TO EYE, which is even better than his main contribution to the film. The disc is fine even though outside of the extra short is bare bones.

This was just a listing of dvds that have been, or are currently available, in the United States. My apologies if I have overlooked any. Many more discs are available throughout Europe including box sets and a special edition of RED DESERT that I am dying to see. Hopefully soon we will see some more quality releases of his work as I am really holding out for Criterion to pick up LA NOTTE, RED DESERT and BLOW-UP.
The most notable absences right on DVD, outside of his early work in the fifties, are ZABRISKIE POINT (1970), the documentary CHINA (1972), THE MYSTERY OF OBERWALD (1981) and his last truly great film (although I love BEYOND THE CLOUDS) IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN (1982).
It is frankly ridiculous that a director of Antonioni's stature has so many holes with his filmography on the DVD market. With some luck that will hopefully begin to change very soon.

A Few Tricks Left Up The Old Masters Sleeve

1995's BEYOND THE CLOUDS is not one of Antonioni's more accomplished films but it is a film that remains a remarkable feat simply in that it exists at all.
Michelangelo suffered a very debilitating stroke in 1985 that robbed him of his speech and left him partially paralyzed. Since he was already 73 when this happened it appeared a sure thing that 1982's IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN would indeed be his final film and yet Michelangelo continued on and managed to make three short films in the decade following his stroke.
When word first came down that Antonioni was indeed mounting a major new film in the mid nineties the excitement was overwhelming to me, as well as many other film fans and critics. Shot on location in four Italian and French cities with a truly astonishing cast including Sophie Marceau, Irene Jacob, Fanny Ardant, Chiara Caselli, Vincent Perez, Marcello Mastroinanni and Jeanne Moreau, BEYOND THE CLOUDS would have been major project for any director but considering Michelangelo was in his mid eighties and not able to speak the film seemed like a miracle.
Assisting Antonioni was one of his biggest followers, German born Wim Wenders. Wender's invaluable book about the making of the film, MY TIME WITH ANTONIONI, is a great recourse for fans of Michelangelo. Wender's shot much of the footage involving insufferable John Malkovich narration that acted as a connection between Antonioni's elegiac and erotic sections. Antonioni wisely cut most of Wender's footage out of the film but the parts that do remain remain the weakest sections of BEYOND THE CLOUDS and I have always thought a simple anthology film with just Antonioni's footage would have worked much better. Still it is to Wender's credit that he was on the set and did assist the frail director in crafting his final major production.

The segments in BEYOND THE CLOUDS were based on pieces from Antonioni's great short story collection, BOWLING ALLEY ON THE TIMBER, but BEYOND THE CLOUDS really isn't about plotting or storyline. The joy of the film is in the visuals, with Michelangelo's amazing compositional abilities still in full power. Talented cinematographer Alfio Contini, who had shot ZABRISKIE POINT back in 1970, provides the film's striking look and it melds in perfectly with Antonioni's unmistakable direction and camera work.

BEYOND THE CLOUDS is one of the most erotic films Michelangelo ever shot and his cast, featuring some of the most beautiful women on the planet, is awesome to see. Sophie Marceau is particularly lovely in this film and Antonioni shoots her as if it might be the last time he will be able to photograph the female face and form. Irene Jacob, who shot this just after her miraculous turn in Kieslowski's RED, gives the film its emotional and spiritual center and her segment is a lovely reminder of some of the master's greatest works.
The film's most nostalgic moment comes in the scene where Mastroianni and Moreau are seen together again. Seeing the two of these greats together being photographed by Antonioni remains a powerful image and provides a fitting coda to Antonioni's awesome career.
BEYOND THE CLOUDS would open to mixed reviews and it is a flawed and slightly disconnected film. That doesn't make it any less miraculous though and in its greatest moments, such as Marceau through Antonioni's camera, it is a beautiful and moving film made by a great artist knowing he is making one of his final works.

A New Career In A New Town

"I met a new me at 8 am, the other one got lost,
this was not a trade in, although I wouldn't believe the cost.
I woke up crying as we said goodbye,
me an my old self, each day he vanished more and more
as I became someone else."
-Lou Reed, Trade In-

"I am the passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
I see the bright and hollow sky."
-David Bowie, Iggy Pop, The Passenger-

When thinking about Antonioni's greatest film it is RED DESERT that typically pops into my mind. However I find as I am getting older it is his 1975 feature THE PASSENGER that I return to more and more.
I first saw THE PASSENGER just after I got my drivers licence when I was sixteen. There was an Evansville video store that had a small foreign section and it was here that I found Antonioni's masterpiece in one of those oversize clam shell boxes that was covered in dust. The cover shot of a beautifully bruised and tragic looking Jack Nicholson standing in a doorway was incredibly evocative and I have been sorry to not see it used more.

While I admired the film on that first viewing, I think I was perhaps too young to completely appreciate what it was that Nicholson's David Locke was running from. Add that on to the fact that that old full frame and faded VHS copy did everything it could to drain all the artistic life out of Michelangelo's film. Although I saw this film several times in this way throughout my teens and twenties, I didn't truly experience it until I saw it a couple of years back at a Louisville theater for it's re-release.
That theatrical experience was interesting. The theater was surprisingly crowded and there have only been a handful of films that I had ever been more excited to see. I have also never been more personally offended by a series of walk outs in a film, as there were a few. Seeing THE PASSENGER restored and on a big screen was for me a remarkable and hypnotic experience.
There were several things that jumped out at me that afternoon in the theater. The color of the sky in the opening shots of this film in indescribable and throughout the picture Luciano Tavoli's color photography is nearly too beautiful to look at. It literally was like seeing a different film than that old VHS copy. Another thing that stood out was Maria Schneider, the sometimes maligned LAST TANGO IN PARIS star is so effective in this picture as the girl who might be controlling much more than anyone can imagine. The shot of her standing in the car with her arms outstretched as the treetops envelope her from behind is one of the most remarkably composed shots of Antonioni's career, and Schneider looks like one of the great lost Art House icons of all time in it.

A few other thoughts I had were that Jack Nicholson, easily one of the greatest American actors, has never been better in a role. There is such an intensity to his performance in this film and I can think of very few American stars who would have been willing to play a role like this, and even less who could have done it so beautifully.
The final thought I had about the film, and it came to me shortly after the astonishing seven minute long one shot take that still baffles me even though I have heard it explained. The thought was this, that THE PASSENGER was the closing chapter to the great European Art House movement. That's not to suggest that there haven't been other art house films, or films as a completely pure and sacred art form (Kieslowski's THREE COLORS TRILOGY certainly springs to mind) but after 1975 things did surely change. Much like RAGING BULL and BLOW-OUT feel like the furious last gasps of the American film movement of the Seventies, then indeed THE PASSENGER seems like a hypnotic coda to a remarkable period when it wasn't just possible to make a film like this but also a time when anyone would bother.
The only other time I can remember being so hypnotized by a theatrical experience was when I saw the restored print of Peter Weir's PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK in the mid nineties. Coming out of the theater that afternoon the sun felt positively blinding and I was so wiped out emotionally that Islept for what felt like hours when I got home that afternoon.
I think it wasn't just Michelangelo's remarkable direction of THE PASSENGER that got me so much but it was a real personal connection to the lost David Locke. In the past decade I have felt more and more like that character, who wants nothing more than not only a new life but the ability to erase his old one (or as David Bowie would put it two years after this film, "A New Career In A New Town). Antonioni finally suggests that perhaps finding this way out, this trade in, might not be all its made out to be. Maybe we are all in our own way looking for a our own personal trade in but sometimes just going along for life's ride is the only way out. I don't know, I find it difficult to express my emotions about David Locke and Antonioni's film, all I know is that there are few films that have spoken to me more about the increasingly disconnected nature of my life that this one.
THE PASSENGER might not ever be held in the same esteem as the trilogy of black and white films Antonioni shot in the early sixties but I suspect it will continue to grow in prestige. It is a remarkable film that is, much like the man who made it, truly timeless.

The Art of the Movie Poster: A Daria Halprin Birthday Edition