Italian Director Antonioni Dies at 94

[Scurrilous]

Source: Guardian

<snip>

"Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, best known for his movies "Blow-Up" and "L'Avventura," has died, officials and news reports said Tuesday. He was 94.

The ANSA news agency said that Antonioni died at his home on Monday evening.

"With Antonioni dies not only one of the greatest directors but also a master of modernity," Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said in a statement.

In 1995, Hollywood honored Antonioni's career work - 25 films and several screenplays - with a special Oscar for lifetime achievement."



Read more: http://film.guardian.co.uk/apnews/story/0,,-6817179,00.html

[Hissyspit]

1. Wow, Bergman and Antonioni within a day.

Rest in peace.

[madrchsod]

2. the old guard is dieing away...

two of the best gone in two days....

[brentspeak]

25. Plus, cinematographer Lazlo Kovacs last week

[Hissyspit]

4. Lobby Card:

Remember those?



First English-language film, if I'm not mistaken. I still haven't seen "The Passenger"!

[Marnieworld]

18. Martin Scorcese must be inconsolable

RIP indeed. They will live on forever in their films.

[demoleft]

3. Original, not conventional. A master with his own language.

A generation of storytellers is slowly dying.
Have a safe journey home, masters!

[xchrom]

5. agree -- these were guys who were inventing a new language

for film making.

impressive indeed.

peace be with his family.

[regnaD kciN]

8. A language which has now been replaced...

..by SFX, music-video editing, and the bypassing of the mind and heart in favor of the adrenal gland.

I guess I just must be a Luddite. I miss the old days. :-(

[xchrom]

9. here we could persue a very interesting discussion.

bergman and antonini and others were modernistss in terms of film making -- and they were at the crossroads of changing technology.

i've often felt that part of the demise of film making -- if there is one -- is held in the technology period.

the easier it became to move the camera -- the less the film depended on the art of the writer, the actor and the lighting designer.

they became subservient. an add on.

just part of a longer, larger observation.

[demoleft]

13. You remind me of the protagonists in Wenders' "Lisbon Story"

They end roaming through the streets fo Lisbon together again, with an old camera and the enthusiasm of their greener days.
To state that love for the cinema and for the storytelling can never die!

[martymar64]

23. The movie is always about the story

A film can have all of the special fx in the world, but if the story isn't there, then it's just polishing a turd.

I like fx, but it absolutely needs the story to make a film. Otherwise its just a pretty picture.

RIP Ingmar and Michaelangelo.

[cui bono]

24. I attribute it more to the business aspect swallowing up the artistic aspect.

There's still a lot of good filmmaking going on but it's not the the big budget films with lots of advertising because it doesn't go to the top of the box office. You just have to seek it out.

I really don't see how moving the camera more changes the story aspect of a film. Do you mean moving as in tracking shots or do you mean moving as in changing the set up for the shot? Because some of the most artistic films involve the long tracking shots where as the hack films/directors don't include them as much. They usually use straight set ups and get a the master shot and a couple coverage angles and then they're done. No thought involved in where they place the camera or how they use it.

[Tesha]

15. No, you just need to watch more "Indie" films and fewer studio retread sequels. (NT)

[Kolesar]

7. What does your signature line say?

It piqued my interest.

[demoleft]

10. "If I die, leave the balcony open."

Farewell (by Federico García Lorca. In Spanish.)

If I die,
leave the balcony open.

The little boy is eating oranges.
(From my balcony I can see him.)

The reaper is harvesting the wheat.
(From my balcony I can hear him.)

If I die,
leave the balcony open!

:hi:

[Kolesar]

12. I learned about Federico Lorca from the Barcelona! exhibit...

...at the Cleveland Museum of Art earlier this year. Before that, it was a lyric by the Clash (Spanish Bombs).

Thanks

[regnaD kciN]

6. I remember when I was a teenager...

...and first started getting interested in filmmaking. Back then, the "big names," beloved by true cinephiles, were people like Bergman, Fellini, Truffaut, Kurosawa, Kubrick, Antonioni, de Sica, Robert Bresson, Lindsay Anderson, Louis Malle, Jacques Demy...

All, all gone. Now, the only survivors of that generation are Jean-Luc Godard and, arguably, Eric Rohmer. :-(

[Zensea]

17. Bertolucci is still alive

I think he is a member of that group

[FredfromSpace]

20. Bertolucci is indeed still alive and working

And as noted, Goddard is not dead yet.

Luis Bunuel should be included in any list of the greats of yore.

But to lose these two greats in two days.....it's just sad and reminds us of how far we fallen as a culture.

[laststeamtrain]

11. So many brilliant moments.

The finale of L'Eclipse.

The toy robot in Red Desert.

David Hemmings in Blow Up watching the mimes play & then, joining in.

The last academy awards show I enjoyed was the year Antonioni won a life-time achievement award. Jack Nicholson in presenting the award said:

"In the empty, silent spaces of the world, he has found metaphors that illuminate the silent places our hearts, and found in them, too, a strange and terrible beauty: austere, elegant, enigmatic, haunting,"

An absolutely profound thinker & artist.

[Tesha]

14. Claude Hooper Bukowski weaps...

...and hopes Roman Polanski isn't next!

Tesha

[NashVegas]

16. Ow Ow Ow

Nice reference.

[Marnieworld]

19. I always hear that when I read Antonioni as well

I had the Album when I was 8 and that line made no sense to me at all at the time.

[unc70]

21. I believe in Claude

A similar thought had dashed through my free-associating mind, too. Probably because the Edwards commercial on the CNN debate has triggered the entire Broadway album becoming a giant earworm for me.

I need to dig out my BW soundtrack, turn it up, and enjoy the flashbacks. While considerably different than the stage version, Foreman's film version does a pretty good job of catching the mood from ten years previous.

Earlier this year, I was surprised that none of the 28-35 year-old members of my extended family had ever seen the film or stage versions, and they were only aware of a couple of the songs. When I showed/sang some of the lyrics, but without being able to convey the context, they thought the lyrics were so offensive they couldn't see them as satire, protest, or anything other than racist, sexist, and crude. I see them as germane today as they were nearly 40 (!) years ago.

[slackmaster]

22. We lost Fellini in '93

:argh:

[Zomby Woof]

26. "The Passenger"

Finally made it to DVD recently. It features one of Jack Nicholson's very best performances, and yet is barely known in the U.S.

I highly recommend it.

He and Bergman in two days. Damn.

[burrowowl]

27. May Youngsters inquire!

K&R!

[YOY]

28. Thank God Micheal Bay is alive and well to perserve the dignity of cinema

:sarcasm: