Blow-Up

In 1966, Michelangelo Antonioni (L’Avventura), transplanted his existentialist ennui to the streets of swinging London for this international sensation, the Italian filmmaker’s first English-language feature. A controversial countercultural masterpiece about the act of seeing and the art of image making, Blow-Up takes the form of a psychological mystery, starring David Hemmings as a hedonistic fashion photographer who unknowingly captures a murder on film after following two lovers in a park, leading to a metaphysical puzzle filtered through a stylishly mod lens. Antonioni’s meticulous aesthetic control and intoxicating color palette breathe life into every frame, and the jazzy sounds of Herbie Hancock, a beautifully evasive performance by Vanessa Redgrave, and a cameo by the Yardbirds make the film a transporting time capsule from a bygone era. Blow-Up, nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay Academy Awards, is a seductive immersion into creative passion, and a brilliant film by one of cinema’s greatest artists. (Dir. by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966, UK/Italy/USA, 111 mins., Not Rated)