Blow Up

Starring:Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, David Hemmings, John Castle (II), Jane Birkin, Gillian Hills, Peter Bowles, Veruschka von Lehndorff, Julian Chagrin, Claude Chagrin, Peggy Moffitt, Chris Dreja, Ann Norman, Chas Lawther, Mary Khal, Reg Wilkins, Jill Kennington, Janet Street-Porter, Melanie Hampshire, Jimmy Page
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

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This 1966 masterpiece by Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger) is set in the heady atmosphere of Swinging London, and stars David Hemmings as an unsmiling fashion photographer hooked on ephemeral meaning attached to anything: art, sex, work, relationships, drugs, events. When a real mystery falls into his lap, he probes the evidence for some reliable truth, but finds it hard to reckon with. Vanessa Redgrave plays an enigmatic woman whose desperation to cover something up only seems like one more phenomenon in Hemmings's disinterested purview. This is one of the key films of the decade, and still an unsettling and lasting experience. --Tom Keogh

Description

Taking photographs of a couple making love proves deadly when the photographer enlarges the image and discovers murder. The film and pictures are stolen from his studio and the body vanishes. In this elegant balance of deciet and trickery, the photographer must question the reality of what he has actually seen.

Customer Reviews:

Red Sun.......2007-05-22

BLOW UP (1966) was Michelangelo Antonioni's second color film, and his first in English. Interestingly it was his first film that had a male protagonist. He is considered the master of abstract cinema, and this film continues in that vein. The cinematography was presented in very abstract ways, with most shots framed oddly, blocked by beams, banisters, photographic equipment, windows, and furniture. The camera made no effort to clear these objects in order for us to see the actors. Primary reds were the dominant colors, and in London that seemed easy, passing the double-decker buses and phone booths and pubs, all painted blood red. He painted one apartment building bright blue just for the contrast.

Swinging London of the Mods in the mid-60's seemed so wonderfully dated, captured in its spectacle. Those beehive hair-dos and mini-skirts, smoking that demon joint, the beginnings of the British invasion, that hard rock sound presented in the film by the Yardbirds, the first stages of long hair on men, and the casual way nudity and promiscuity is handled; all old hat to us now, but very brazen then.

I loved the way Antonioni gave us the skewed perspective of an unnamed photographer snapping candid shots of a young couple in the park, while the director shot him doing so; an overlapping sense of three perspectives. What the movie camera saw was not exactly what was snapped by the photographer. I loved the parallel of the photographer hopping over the low fence to hide in the bushes to shoot some shots, and then later discovering in exactly the same pose and framed shot, the sniper, the killer, behind the fence in the bushes. And of course the obvious parallels of the artist's abstract paintings, just so many random dots of color, until he capped the painting with some point of view, some detail that drew it all together -and the blow ups themselves, those photos of photos, with pixels blown up so large that they too look like abstract paintings to be interpreted.

Some have argued that the park represented Nature versus the pandemonium of the city, and yet what is a park? It is just an artificial large garden planted in the middle, or on the edge of a city, and it "represents" nature. We go there and have picnics or our lattes and imagine that we are off in the forest or field. This illusionary concept is important to Antonioni. Add to this the sense of each of us remaining strangers midst the teeming masses. The photographer and the mystery lady (David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave) both remain nameless. People seem to know them, but never refer to them by their name; very existential. It has been suggested that the director gave us several plot lines that were never meant to make sense, like the antique store scenes; and yet that would be a place that a photographer might haunt. His suggestions that his agent would bid on the store, that he might be a real estate speculator is never explored. Unlike a real photographer who asks permission to shoot a subject, Hemmings always shot secretly; even in the opening scenes, where he pretended to be homeless to shoot those old men in the shelter. Then there is the issue as to what was reality. Hemmings thinks he saw a corpse in the park when he visited it again, and yet he was not carrying his ever present camera. Why not? It seems to suggest that any of us alone witnessing something has no validity. We must find another human being to collaborate our find, to verify our conclusions.

Then the director gave us the "Merry Makers", the 8-10 Mimes that traveled around in an open jalopy, panhandling and performing, providing a prologue and epilogue. Their wordless game of tennis became the most "real" thing the photographer encountered, as he accepted their non-reality. As Antonioni made the character disappear in the grassy field, it made us wonder if any of the story had happened, or was it an allegory or dream. A complex and provoking film, it never fails to tantalize, a provoke attempts to make sense out of a senseless act.

Dangerous Power of Images in 'Swinging London'.......2007-04-18

"Blow Up" (1966) by Michelangelo Antonioni - is an artful, extremely well made meditation on the manipulation of images. The theme that first Antonioni's English-language film examines is reality vs. perception. We know that seeing is believing but can we always trust ourselves with what we see? Can we explain what we see? The film is as multi-layered as it is puzzling. It is very easy to admire this film and it is difficult to love it - it stimulates the mind but it does not do much for the feelings. The characters appear and disappear mysteriously, sometimes, literally in the thin air - after a while you don't care much what happens to them.

Antonioni was able to do what his hero could not - he captured the moment in time. His evidence of the most happening place in the world of the 1960s, the "Swinging London" with its cool music, a lot of beautiful girls exquisite like rare exotic flowers, parties, night clubs, Yardbirds performance, David Hemming in his white jeans looking like blond Paul McCartney, will not be destroyed and won't disappear like the pictures of the possible murder in the film did.

you might need to think.......2007-04-17

yes, this is a slow moving movie... and god forbid, you might need to think. This is a film, not a movie. People who like art house will enjoy this, if you prefer to be spoon fed, go rent one of the mainstream films.

i wish they had shrunk it.......2007-03-30

there are few more excruciating experiences than sitting thru a work of "art". this pretentious overblown (lame pun intended) tripe from 40 years ago is almost as painful to watch as "zabriskie point"; i daresay that i wouldrather sit thru "mchales navy joins the air force" than this! why would anybody take antonioni seriously? but even more irritating than the movie itself is the commentary track by some purported antonioni "scholar". david hemmings career is non-existent nowadays, and vanessa redgrave has managed to live this down (hey, if you can survive "camelot" you can survive anything). if this was swinging london in the 60s, im glad i was in new york!

Buy the soundtrack, read the book, skip the film.......2007-02-13

I watched this film recently after having enjoyed the soundtrack for years. I found the film to be weak on suspense, character development, and pacing. The plot was nearly absent. I suppose the style of photography and editing could be useful to a student of film history, but for the rest of us who actually want to see a movie that we can be pulled in by and enjoy, this is an utter waste of time. I don't know how Cortazar felt about this adaptation of his work, but I'm sure it wasn't a happy feeling.

25th Hour (2003) / Caught Up (1998) / 100 Kilos (1998) "3 DVD SET"

Average customer rating:

25th Hour (2003) / Caught Up (1998) / 100 Kilos (1998) "3 DVD SET"

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ASIN: B000BU6MQA

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Fairly vanilla sampler from the folks at Hollywood & Vine

Blow-Up
Starring: Various Artists
Manufacturer: Capitol
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Blow Up

ASIN: B0000C2IXY
Release Date: 2003-09-16

Customer Reviews:

Fairly vanilla sampler from the folks at Hollywood & Vine.......2004-03-15

Well, you can't beat the price.

Fans of the acts included on this DVD won't mind ponying up the (insert relatively low dollar figure here) for this glorified in-store promo effort, but there really isn't much of interest included in this set for anyone who is more than a casual fan.

The videos themselves aren't particularly ground-breaking (where have you gone, Russell Mulcahy?); Dandy Warhols fans may be interested to know that the video for "We Used To Be Friends" that is seen on this DVD is not the same version that can be found on the Dandys' website, and fans of Coldplay and the Vines (you know who you are) will doubtless enjoy the live footage of their band. Radiohead fans may feel a bit cheated as their band isn't represented with a proper video clip...and the "footage" was already archival and dated by the time this DVD was released.

There is a "pop-up video"-style video commentary track for each song that can be applied for casual fans otherwise unfamiliar with the artists included, but while the artist selection presented here is as good as can be expected and the price is indeed most reasonable, this video compilation, contemporary for its time, is hardly as interesting as other (far more expensive) DVD collections focusing on the careers of single artists such as the Cult, the Cure, Blur, and (especially) Duran Duran.

Product Description

Bobby and Karen are in love. When Bobby proposed, it should have been the happiest day of their lives, but their nieghbor, voodoo priestess Esmerelda, has other plans. With the help of a mystical severed head, Esmerelda plots her revenge through the eyes of a killer blow-up doll. With the most vile love scene since the chicken scene in Pink Flamingos and the most horrid "decapitation" ever filmed, Blown is sure to be the hilarious cult nightmare you'll force all of your friends to watch. Especially if you hate your friends. From Abnormal Entertainment and the mind of David C. Hayes (Back Woods, Shower of Blood) comes the most twisted horror/comedy in years. Get ready to be BLOWN away! DVD Bonus Features include the Blown Trailer and an Image Slideshow!

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