quote: BBC News Online

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Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni, renowned for his 1966 release Blow-Up, has died aged 94.

He gained two Oscar nominations for the iconic release, and was awarded an honorary Academy Award for his life's work in 1995. His Italian language films, including La Notte, also won recognition during his career, which began in the 1940s. The director died peacefully at home on Tuesday night, according to his wife, actress Enrica Fico.

Antonioni was born in 1912 in Ferrara, a small town in the north-east of Italy. He studied economics at the University of Bologna, but came to attention as a film critic when he savagely criticised the Italian comedies of the 1930s.

In the 1940s, he enrolled at Centro Sperimentale, Italy's national film school, and soon began working as a scriptwriter, collaborating with directors such as Roberto Rossellini and Enrico Fulchignoni.

His debut feature film, Story of A Love Affair, was released in 1950, but he did not achieve international success until L'avventura (The Adventure) in 1960. The film, which won the special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of a group of couples who take a boat trip to an island off the coast of Sicily.

One of the party, a young woman called Anna, wanders off and becomes lost. As they search for her, Anna's boyfriend and best friend become attracted to one another and eventually forget about their former companion. The film's premiere at Cannes was a disaster, with the audience jeering the film when they found out the mystery of Anna's disappearance would never be resolved. But the critics loved it, and L'avventura went on to be acknowledged as a classic.

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George Sluizer also drew heavily on the idea in The Vanishing (more so the original Dutch version than the Hollywood remake), IMHO.

A pity this didn't mention his early 'behind the scenes' work on many of Rossellini's and Visconti's of the late '40s, e.g. heavily revising the script of Ossessione, which IMHO was crucial to his eventual '60s arthouse successes.
 

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Posted by Jeremy Jorgenson (Member # 2989) on 08-01-2007, 02:18 AM:
 
Antonioni & Bergman one day apart!!!
 

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Posted by Michael Barry (Member # 237) on 08-01-2007, 05:09 AM:
 
Bergman and now Antonioni? What are the odds?

Another favourite...sadly no more. His legacy will continue!

L'Eclisse is phenomenal. One of the best ever.
 

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Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 08-01-2007, 05:59 AM:
 
Well remember showing Blow-Up in 1967 at the Classic, Hampstead. There was a warning in the film cans that no frames were to be removed, and any splices in the release copies would be embossed with an MGM stamp (which were). We had a random check one morning by the MGM print manager who examined a couple of reels.

Blow-Up
 

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Posted by Ray Faultless (Member # 903) on 08-01-2007, 09:16 AM:
 
Bernard why was that. I dont remember anything in Blow Up that would make anyone want to remove frames.
 

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Posted by Bernard Tonks (Member # 809) on 08-01-2007, 09:52 AM:
 
Ray,

You would need to get hold of a 35mm print or maybe still frame a DVD if untouched. There was complete nudity with two girls larking around on sheets of blue paper. You had to be very quick to see anything really, maybe MGM was concerned about frames being removed for porno magazines. Blow-Up was rated X, today would most likely pass as a 12a.
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 08-01-2007, 11:04 AM:
 
I've got an odd reel of something that's got a 'MGM' stamp embossed by each splice. I think it's 'Grand Prix'.
 

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