Michelangelo Antonioni

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Barmy
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm

#126 Post by Barmy » Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:26 pm

Bergman says something about Antonioni

Italian news coverage

His godawful music video for Gianna Nannini

Scorsese's NYTimes piece (it's behind their lameass Times Select B.S.)

[quote]NINETEEN-SIXTY-ONE ... a long time ago. Almost 50 years. But the sensation of seeing “L'Avventuraâ€

Eclisse
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#127 Post by Eclisse » Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:56 pm

Very close to what he said in My Voyage to Italy isn't? Sometimes it feels that he is even using the same lines.But I don't think he is.It would have been better to see him write about Bergman,and Allen about Antonioni.

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Barmy
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#128 Post by Barmy » Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:07 pm

Agreed. The piece is canned and useless.

Eclisse
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#129 Post by Eclisse » Fri Aug 10, 2007 4:46 pm

That's what he feels about it. I don't think it's useless. (But)He's just repeating himself. Not everybody watched My Voyage to Italy .

In My Voyage to Italy he doesn't take sides between La Dolce Vita and L'Avventura. Here he does.

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GringoTex
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#130 Post by GringoTex » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:42 pm

Barmy wrote:Agreed. The piece is canned and useless.
Your thoughts intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Oh but for the virtual one-liners of the petit-bourgeoisie.

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kinjitsu
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#131 Post by kinjitsu » Sun Aug 12, 2007 5:20 pm

David Bordwell: Bergman, Antonioni, and the stubborn stylists

The Scorsese piece in the New York Times is now available to regular subcribers: The Man Who Set Film Free

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Barmy
Joined: Mon May 16, 2005 3:59 pm

#132 Post by Barmy » Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:26 pm

I'm glad someone set that article free.

P.S. I Vinti is finally coming out in Italy on the Minerva label on 9/19, with English subtitles. His worst film, but worth it if the transfer is good.

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ellipsis7
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#133 Post by ellipsis7 » Mon Aug 13, 2007 3:38 am

Also CHUNG KUO-CINA. 2 DVD. CON LIBRO coming from Feltrinelli/Real Cinema, Italy on 1st November... No subs info....

And Minerva seem to be releasing two alternative packages of I VINTI - single disc, and a separate double discer (containing both Italian & 'integral' versions) and an accompanying book containing collected criticism etc. relating to the film....

I presume the difference is in the soundtrack - the Italian version almost certainly has all three episodes dubbed into Italian, while the integral version preserves the original language of each - Italian, English and French....

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jesus the mexican boi
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#134 Post by jesus the mexican boi » Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:49 pm


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Barmy
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#135 Post by Barmy » Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:42 pm

Digitize the photos, etc., run new prints (existing film prints suck) of the shorts and DVDize them. MA's filmic connection to Ferrara is somewhat tenuous anyway.

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tryavna
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#136 Post by tryavna » Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:08 pm

I guess Antonioni had to one-up Bergman and his archive's troubles even after death.

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Barmy
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#137 Post by Barmy » Thu Aug 16, 2007 5:30 pm

Time for Scorsese to pony up.

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ellipsis7
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#138 Post by ellipsis7 » Fri Aug 17, 2007 3:19 am

Scorsese's piece also published in The Guardian today as "The One Who Went Before"....

The museum has been closed for a while - I suspect and hope the worst that could happen is that the entire collection be transferred to an Italian or American university for safe care....

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
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#139 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Aug 17, 2007 1:05 pm

I thought the F. Scott Fitzgerald comparison was very well made. I took a Novel Into Film module while I was at University (the nearest I came to taking a course on cinema) and The Great Gatsby was one of the novels we read. While being impressed by the book I wasn't that taken with the Jack Clayton film which we viewed in the class. I think I was unconsciously yearning for a cooler take on the subject of disconnections.

Years later after seeing L'Avventura for the first time it felt like the film I'd been looking for and in a strange way after viewing Antonioni's film where there are absurd moments (such as the crowd gathering to look at Gloria Perkins) dealt with in a detached (or rather an unemotional and observational) manner I felt better able to appreciate Clayton's film where the filming style becomes as histrionic as the characters (I especially liked the way the scene where the clothes are being flung out of the cupboard was filmed!) - it is as if The Great Gatsby is showing people driven to florid gestures by the opulence of their surroundings rather than being intimidated by them into pretending that there is nothing wrong. Both approaches conceal deep loneliness under superficial surfaces reflecting the characters psychological states.

It was a nice realisation to have, even if it came much too late to help me get a good mark in my course!

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Lemmy Caution
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#140 Post by Lemmy Caution » Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:21 pm

I just picked up a 2-disc version of Chung Kuo released by Medusa Video of Italy. unfortunately no English subtitles, but I decided that wasn't going to stop me.

Living in China, this should be very interesting. I'd like to show it to some Chinese friends as well.

Also just got China: A Century of Revolution, a 6 hour PBS documentary.

Numéro 2
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2005 3:33 pm

#141 Post by Numéro 2 » Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:39 pm

There's also a new Chinese documentary about Anotioni's documentary called "China is already far away - Antonioni and China" made last year by Liu Haiping. For me, the most interesting thing here was the interviews with an old Antonioni made in home in Italy - but for someone living in modern day China - the way the film connects the new China with the China of Antonioni's film could prove to be interesting.

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ellipsis7
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#142 Post by ellipsis7 » Tue Dec 04, 2007 7:47 am

Had a chance to watch that new 2 disc + book Italian release of CINA CHUNG KUO...

Image

It's a nice package and a decent transfer of unrestored print, generally clean and clear, but showing some dirt, sparkle, scratches and signs of aging - not untoward in that the source material was Super 16mm, shot in the Spring of 1972, so the negative is now 35 years old...

While there are no English or Italian subtitles (the film does not even attempt to translate the Chinese speaking into Italian subs), there are relatively brief passages of Italian narration...

It's actually not hard to follow, in that the point is to go with the flow and follow Antonioni's remarkable eye, that so enraged the Chinese authorities that they banned the film until recently, and issued an English language pamphlet attacking the film in 1974... It starts as follows...
A VICIOUS MOTIVE, DESPICABLE TRICKS - A Criticism of M. Antonioni's Anti-China Film China

Renmin Ribao Commentator

FOREIGN LANGUAGES PRESS

PEKING 1974 [page 1]

SINCE the day the five-star red flag was hoisted over Tien An Men Square and the birth of the new China was proclaimed, different political forces in the world have assumed different attitudes towards the earth-shaking social changes in China and the tremendous achievements of her socialist construction. Hundreds of millions of revolutionary people and friends all over the world have voiced admiration and sympathy, while a handful of reactionary forces are filled with great terror and deep hatred. This is what all great revolutions, whether in China or other lands, in ancient times or today, invariably meet. The anti-China film China by the Italian director M. Antonioni, which started showing in some Western countries last year, reflects the attitude of the tiny handful of imperialists and social-imperialists in the present-day world who have inveterate hatred for the new China. The appearance of this film is a serious anti-China event and a frenzied provocation against the Chinese people.

Antonioni came to China as our guest in the spring of 1972. with his camera, he visited Peking, Shanghai, Nanking, Soochow and Linhsien County. However, his purpose in making the visit was not to increase his understanding of China, still less promote the friendship between the people of China and Italy. Hostile towards the Chinese people, he took the opportunity of his visit for unspeakable purposes; by underhand and utterly despicable means he hunted specifically for material that could be used to slander and attack China. His three-and-half-hour-long film does not at all reflect the new things, new spirit and new face of our great motherland, but lumps together a large number of viciously distorted scenes and shots to attack Chinese leaders, smear the socialist new China, slander China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and insult the Chinese people. Any Chinese with any national pride cannot but be greatly angered on seeing this film. Tolerating such a film and permitting it to deceive people in various places would be tantamount to legitimizing reactionary propaganda that wilfully insults the Chinese people and capitulating to anti-China provocations by the international reactionaries. In reply to this challenge hurled at the Chinese people by the international reactionaries, we will thoroughly expose and criticize this film's counter-[2] revolutionary nature. This is a serious struggle on the ideological and political front that merits great attention.

The Italian director claims in his narration, "We do not pretend to explain China. We only want to begin to observe this great repertoire of faces, gestures and habits" in China. This is a downright fraud. Every scene in the "documentary" makes its own explanation. These are scurrilous political explanations which use reactionary artistry to slander and smear China; they are outright reckless political attacks on China, on communism and on the revolution.

It seems quite natural that Tien An Men Square is shown as the film begins. In fact, this is designed to serve the reactionary theme of the "documentary." The narrator says: "Peking is the political and revolutionary centre of China," "the People's Republic was proclaimed here " "and here passed the waves of Red Guards marching for the Cultural Revolution." Then, the film leads the spectators away from Tien An Men Square to "observe" China, supposedly to see what the Chinese revolution has brought the Chinese people. A series of reactionary scenes follow, distorting the [3] new China beyond recognition. This structure and composition of the film is designed solely for the purpose of concentrating its attack on the revolution led by the Communist Party of China. And here lies the nub of this film - reviling the revolution, negating it and opposing it.

This reactionary film completely ignores and totally negates the tremendous achievements China has made on all fronts of socialist construction, trying to make people believe that today's socialist new China is not much different from the semi-feudal, semi-colonial old China of the past.
Full text of the pamphlet helpfully online here

It's a key film in his oeuvre, and it's really great that it's now out there... It shows just how subversive his style of filmmaking can be - the all seeing eye, the persistent penetrating gaze...

The DVD is the 3 part 207 minute Italian (RAI) TV version as opposed to French TV Version (130 mins) or the US TV version (104 minutes)... The script (or rather transcript and description) of it can also be picked up in Italian...

Also IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN has been flagged for R2 UK release in 2008 on the Mr Bongo label...

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ellipsis7
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#143 Post by ellipsis7 » Fri Dec 07, 2007 8:22 am

Lemmy Caution wrote:I just picked up a 2-disc version of Chung Kuo released by Medusa Video of Italy. unfortunately no English subtitles, but I decided that wasn't going to stop me.

Living in China, this should be very interesting. I'd like to show it to some Chinese friends as well.

Also just got China: A Century of Revolution, a 6 hour PBS documentary.
There's a 2 disc set plus book of CHUNG KUO CINA from Feltrinelli which I've ordered from www.dvd.it due 1st November...

Just watched 'Tentado Suicido' ep. from Medusa disc of L'AMORE IN CITTA - really powerful and levelling stuff...

Eleanora Rossi Drago, who played the lead, Clelia, in LE AMICHE Guardian obit here

Antonioni gave her her first starring role...

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otis
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:43 am

#144 Post by otis » Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:04 pm

There's a great-looking new Italian disc of Il grido out. Screencaps here. Italian subs only, I'm afraid.

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ellipsis7
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#145 Post by ellipsis7 » Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:29 pm

Lovely, seems like a great improvement visually on R1 Kino version.. also just out on R2 FR Warner Home Video as 'Le Cri', french subs presumably...

Tin Monkey
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#146 Post by Tin Monkey » Sat Jan 05, 2008 7:29 am

For anyone in the northern parts of the UK, there's an Antonioni Tribute at the National Media Museum in Bradford from Jan. 16 - 30. It's £15 for the 6 hour day, which includes lectures on his alienation series and a screening of L'Eclisse.

I already have my place booked. :)

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Barmy
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#147 Post by Barmy » Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:22 pm

Antonioni starved himself to death.

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ellipsis7
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#148 Post by ellipsis7 » Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:35 am

Extraordinary - he could cope with the loss of speech and impaired movement, but not with the loss of sight...

It makes his final masterpiece, the short film LO SGUARDO DI MICHELANGELO/THE GAZE OF MICHELANGELO (2004), an even more poignant and piercing last word... It is all about vision, perception, gaze, through the encounter of 2 great artists, Michelagelo Antonioni and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni..
Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote:The Gaze of Antonioni

Mislabelled Michelangelo Eye to Eye in English when a more accurate English title might be The Gaze of Michelangelo, this beautifully filmed meditation is preceded by an intertitle – the only words in the film apart from the credits – explaining that Antonioni has been confined to a wheelchair since his stroke in 1985, but through the ‘magic of movies’ shows himself visiting the sculpture on foot. The action consists of Antonioni – walking without a cane, and looking like Antonioni prior to his stroke – entering the St. Pietro church in Rome to look at and then touch and caress portions of the restoration of Michelangelo's Moses, then leaving again. It sounds quite simple, despite the digital trickery that made it possible, but like the montage sequence at the end of L’Eclisse (1962), this is a very intricate (and beautifully intricate) simplicity, in terms of framing as well as editing. Conceptually it might be described as one restoration interacting with another restoration – a spectacle that, like all of Antonioni’s greatest films, pointedly raises more questions than it dares to answer, and preserves more mysteries than it can dream of resolving.
Image
Enrica Antonioni wrote:Michelangelo and I

We have made many voyages together, Michelangelo and I. These voyages have always cured us.

To make a foreigner of oneself, to go and live in unknown places, has always taken us so far from ourselves that to then return home and find oneself, emptied of oneself, but full of experiences, was always a comfort.

These voyages were always to far-off places. Today they take place much closer to home.

Every time we go to San Pietro in Vincoli with Michelangelo to visit the Tomb of Julius II it is another voyage. I saw Michelangelo totally isolated in front of the figure of Moses, like in the African desert.

I’ve always felt that this was his special gift, to look with pure eyes, with that beautiful clear green of his, without filters.

Michelangelo’s gaze rests gently on the figure of Moses and is able to contain the entire weight of the memory of everything he has seen, lived, learned in his life.

To look can be intense like a prayer for him.

Even more so now that his steps and his gestures are accompanied by a great silence, to stand next to him when he is absorbed in looking commands a profound silence, a reverent respect for his pilgrimage.

Our first voyage together was to China in 1972 for his documentary Chung Kuo. When we got back home and looked at the footage I realised that almost everything that Michelangelo had seen had escaped me. I hadn’t seen all those colours, all those shades of blue in the Maoist uniforms, those shy smiles of the young girls, that dusty light. I made another voyage in front of his screen.

Now I have the good fortune to stand beside him once more, while he prepares his film on San Pietro in Vincoli. I wait in silence for the gift of his gaze.

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Barmy
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#149 Post by Barmy » Thu Aug 07, 2008 1:54 pm

I have the Bongo "Identification" but haven't looked at it. It's pretty cheap so there really is no reason not to buy it. It seems unlikely that a new transfer with English subs is on the horizon.

"Gaze" is a very interesting short. 2 years ago when I was in Rome I went to the church where it was filmed. It's a pretty modest space, but Antonioni makes it look spectacular.

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zedz
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Re: Michelangelo Antonioni

#150 Post by zedz » Wed Mar 18, 2009 11:37 pm

I don't know if this has been reported elsewhere, but it should at least be reported here.

Chung Kuo is being released by the admirable Carlotta Films in a couple of weeks (8 April). Based on past experience this ought to be an impeccable edition but unsubbed (in English, that is). MoC, are you listening?

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