My Antonioni Devotion

Sometimes you need to be at the right time of your life to really appreciate a certain artist. Those times vary from person to person. An example: For most people, The Catcher in the Rye should be read in high school. For me, though, it was good that I didn't read it until later in life, when I was a little more comfortable with rebellion and the idea that adults weren't always (or even usually) right. But I would be sad if I'd never had the chance to appreciate The Catcher in the Rye.
My main point here, though, is to make sure that you're watching yourself, and staying vigilant to recognize just when it is that you should dive into the films of Michelangelo Antonioni. If you care about film at all, and what it can do to you, that time will come. His films move at their own rhythm, and in this case I don't (necessarily) mean slowly. But scenes move with a different beat. The camera lingers after characters leave the frame, or arrives on the scene well before them. We follow a character off one side of the screen, and when they reappear in the view of another character... it's not quite where we expected them. He uses sound, architecture, and unusual framing to accomplish fascinating psychological effects. (Why are we looking at the back of her head during this key emotional scene? Why, because we should be reflecting, looking into ourselves to find what emotions it might be that she is experiencing.) This is cinema that looks into you, expects you to bring your intellect and emotions both to the screen with you. And it is cinema that will reward you for the effort.

L'Avventura: In the course of just a few days last month, this film became one of my all-time favorites. The plot follows Claudia as she accompanies her friend Anna and Anna's boyfriend Sandro on an idle tour among the idle rich. It's all very idle, until Anna goes missing on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean. Claudia and Sandro commit themselves to the search, but must also struggle with the complexities of their own emotions. No plot summary could ever do justice to the subtlety and complexity of what's going on here. Sandro and Claudia are wondrously embodied by Gabriele Ferzetti and the luminous Monica Vitti respectively. Watch it twice.

La Notte: Second in a loose trilogy begun by L'Avventura, this film follows a writer and his wife through 22 or 23 pivotal hours in their relationship. This time it is Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau in the lead roles. (Antonioni didn't have trouble getting good acting talent in his films.) It begins in a hospital with their dying friend, and ends at an all-night party thrown by a wealthy industrialist with designs on the writer's skills (and also perhaps his integrity?). This film is less oblique than its predecessor, with fewer pregnant pauses for the viewer to work to fill in, but it remains very rich, and the leads are marvelous. (As is Monica Vitti, again, in a key supporting role.) A warning: after you watch films like this, it can sometimes be a bit jarring (or even annoying) to go back to American films that bang you over the head with the point of each conversation and scene.

Blowup: The first time I saw this film, I was utterly mystified, and a little angry. The ending of this film has an effect on a lot of people. The second time I saw it (yes, I watched it again a few years later) I loved it. Yes, I understood the ending a little more. Not completely, but a little more. But I was better able to take the ride earlier in the film. It follows a photographer who seems utterly bored with life, glamorous though it may be. He wanders around trying to find... what? Even he seems unsure. Then he takes some pictures of a couple arguing in a park. The woman asks him to give her the film, and he refuses. Later she comes to his studio to try to get the film again. Now he (and we) begin to get curious. As with L'Avventura we should prepare ourselves for... well, something less than full-on American-style resolution.

So, in the end, what I'm saying is this: don't force it. It may not be your time for Antonioni yet. But someday, it probably will be. Pop in La Notte, or maybe L'Avventura, and see where he takes you. Bring your A game, don't passively consume (I know, I know, so difficult for us Americans!) and you'll be rewarded.