Kael's "The Come-Dressed-as-the-Sick-Soul-of-Europe Parties" (about La Notte, Marienbad, and La Dolce Vita) came out in book form in '65, but it might have originally been a radio broadcast a couple of years earlier--at work, so I can't check.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 13:12 (seven years ago) link
Kael loved "L'Avventura" but turned on him after that.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 18:30 (seven years ago) link
“The Come-Dressed-As-the-Sick-Soul-of-Europe Parties: La Notte, Last Year at Marienbad, La Dolce Vita" seems to have first appeared in The Massachusetts Review (Winter 1963), sex this guy.
http://benefitofthedoubt.miksimum.com/2010/10/searching-out-sick-soul-la-dolce-vita.html
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 18:39 (seven years ago) link
um, sez
it's Monica Vitti, so sex
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 18:46 (seven years ago) link
I went through a phase in college 20+ years ago when L'Avventura, which I'd copied from a horrible VHS, was a touchstone; I wrote a terrible script that was supposed to be a modern South Florida pastiche. These days I prefer L'Eclisse because of the opening sequence + Alain Delon.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 18:47 (seven years ago) link
This thread revive has driven me back to the excellent BFI Film Classic volume on L'avventura by the British film theorist/historian (and relative of a former ilxor) Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. He writes: "It is hard to overstate the importance of L'avventura when it came out in 1960" and "The feeling that L'avventura was a revolution in the making was widespread when it came out." Nowell-Smith saw the film in 1960, not long after its Cannes premiere, and he reminds us that the next morning "a statement had been issued, signed by twenty-five film-makers and critics and datelined 2am, denouncing the behavior of the audience and affirming their belief in the film" (Rossellini was among the signatories). I guess my point is that anti-Antonioni sentiment was, by the time of that Guardian piece, definitely a bit of a challops within film buff/snob discourse (I think Kael, always keen to point out that she was the first to spot the emperor's nudity, enjoyed writing against this kind of hardening critical orthodoxy.) And I'm sure it's age and sentiment, but I find there's something quite moving and inspiring in the response that British cineastes like Nowell-Smith had to this 'moment' in world art cinema - it was an opening of the mind to new and challenging experiences, and like L'avventura itself a journey, out of post-war dourness into the sunshine of a small Italian island, and from there to eternity, or infinity (the unresolved ending suggesting the impossibility - or imposture - of narrative closure.) Yes, Kael's 'The Come-Dressed-as-the-Sick-Soul-of-Europe Parties' is a good one liner, and points to some kind of common truth about these films (L'avventura lost out to La Dolce Vita at Cannes) but it also, to me, feels pinched and sneery and ultimately indifferent to the sheer beauty of Antonioni's imagery.
― Bongo Herbert (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:04 (seven years ago) link
Kael herself said that L'Avventura did for cinema what Woolf, Joyce, and Lawrence did for literature.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:06 (seven years ago) link
She was middling on Blow-Up, with one line that would neatly separate those who love her from those who despise her: "Yet despite Antonioni's negativism, the world he presents looks harmless, and sex without 'connecting' doesn't really seem so bad."
(Was going to post just before Ward did--another example.)
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:06 (seven years ago) link
As I alluded to upthread, Philip Lopate is great on L'Avventura. Found one excerpt online:
"It was the movie I had been preparing for, for it came at the right time in my development. As a child, I had wanted only action movies. Dialogues and story set-ups bored me; I waited for that moment when the knife was hurled through the air. My awakening in adolescence to the art of film consisted precisely in overcoming this impatience. Over-compensating, perhaps, I now loved a cinema that dawdled; that lingered. Antonioni had a way of following characters with a pan shot, letting them exit and keeping the camera on the depopulated landscape. With his detachment from the human drama and his tactful spying on objects and backgrounds, he forced me to disengage as well, and to concentrate on the purity of his technique. Of course the story held me, too, with its bitter world-weary disillusioned tone. The adolescent wants to touch the bottom, to know the worst. His soul craves sardonic disenchantment."
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:08 (seven years ago) link
The essay that's taken from is better--about discovering art houses in general at exactly the right moment in the early '60s.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:10 (seven years ago) link
I own that Lopate collection; he introduced me to Ozu and Naruse.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:11 (seven years ago) link
sex without 'connecting' doesn't really seem so bad."
no wonder she hooked up w/ gay men
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 7 February 2017 19:14 (seven years ago) link
complete retro in NYC
https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/3894?locale=en
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 4 December 2017 20:38 (six years ago) link
Wow
Michelangelo Antonioni's original ending was a shot of an airplane sky-writing the phrase "Fuck You, America," which was cut by MGM president Louis F. Polk along with numerous other scenes. Louis F. Polk was eventually replaced by James T. Aubrey, who had most of the cut footage restored, but without this final shot.
― flappy bird, Friday, 10 August 2018 17:15 (five years ago) link
^ Zabriskie Point
lmao
― circa1916, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:05 (five years ago) link
maybe we could rescue that shot for a(ny) current film
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 10 August 2018 18:08 (five years ago) link
Louis F. Polk OTM, the destruction of the house says exactly the same thing
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:10 (five years ago) link
the ending is already amazing and "Fuck You, America" is maybe too on the nose but damn I wish that footage was extant
― flappy bird, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:12 (five years ago) link
polk not otm, he shd have cut everything else as well
― mark s, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:14 (five years ago) link
the myth of Zabriskie Point being a piece of shit.... ugh. I avoided the movie for many years, in fact I remember the day Antonioni (and Bergman) died, my best friend's dad went on a long rant about how much ZP sucked. he compared it to Heaven's Gate (also unfairly savaged but still by no means a great film). But Zabriskie Point is an astonishing movie, easily one of his best and rivaled only by L'avventura & Red Desert imo. Blow-Up is the overrated one.
― flappy bird, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:18 (five years ago) link
blow-up is also bad
― mark s, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:19 (five years ago) link
blow-up sucks
― flappy bird, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:23 (five years ago) link
But it was the first Antonioni I saw, will definitely see it again next time it plays in a theater in town.
― flappy bird, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:24 (five years ago) link
it will still suck
― mark s, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:24 (five years ago) link
man, mark s taking the Orson Welles view of Mike
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 10 August 2018 18:25 (five years ago) link
ZP >> Blow-Up.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 August 2018 18:26 (five years ago) link
i think I like The Passenger and L'Eclisse better than either
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 10 August 2018 18:33 (five years ago) link
well, yeah
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 August 2018 18:42 (five years ago) link
but i like em all. really haven't seen any loathsome Antonioni.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Friday, 10 August 2018 18:44 (five years ago) link
Ditto. Really like some of the pre-L'Aventurra films too, Le Amiche in particular.
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 10 August 2018 18:54 (five years ago) link
They're all pretty much great. L'eclisse narrowly first among a bunch of equals.
― I Never Promised You A Hose Harden (Eric H.), Friday, 10 August 2018 18:58 (five years ago) link
I love how they were able to work the title into the lyrics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZwdTkBJxcU
I got to see ZP in 35mm during a full retro in '07. That print had the correct Pink Floyd music at the end instead of this studio-imposed Roy number, which unfortunately isn't the case with the DVD.
― Ubering With The King (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 10 August 2018 19:47 (five years ago) link
I find Red Desert pretty silly (ZP too) but I'm in the minority.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 10 August 2018 19:49 (five years ago) link
"Listen man, a molotov cocktail is a mixture of gasoline and kerosene. White radicalism is a mixture of bullshit and jive."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK0g_J1hhDc&t=243s
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 06:02 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK0g_J1hhDc
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 06:03 (five years ago) link
ZP was my first Antonioni - made very little impression. I think it was the only one screened on TV regularly before The Passenger started doing the rounds.
That quote displays his reactionary politics (I guess this is where the doc on China might be useful to delve into this a bit more). I really don't care for almost any of the dialogue in his films, or what he thinks that could be written down. All the depth, focus and thinking went on in the image. Amazing any of it holds up over the length of a film, never mind four of them.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 14 August 2018 08:55 (five years ago) link
Watching Zabriskie Point.
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 01:38 (one year ago) link
Zabriskie Point is interesting as a marker for the beginning of the 70s
His most memorable films to me are from the 60s -L’avventura, La notte, L’eclisse, and Il deserto rosso
Blowup was good too, but seemed more shallow when I watched it recently
I still haven’t seen The Passenger
― Dan S, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:02 (one year ago) link
Diana Halprin was married to Dennis Hopper for four years.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:18 (one year ago) link
The energy or the vibe reminds me of The Model Shop in some ways - a shaggy story, a lot of drinking in of scenery (though this film has a lot of manufactured backdrops that help set a certain scene).
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:22 (one year ago) link
And man, what a soundtrack.
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:24 (one year ago) link
It got torn to shreds at the time, but I saw a good print in a theater once and enjoyed the apocalyptic trippiness and the soundtrack.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:25 (one year ago) link
Has the Dick Cavett Show appearance been discussed yet?
― Cry for a Shadowgraph (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 02:26 (one year ago) link
PINK FLOYD RULES
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 03:31 (one year ago) link
Pink Floyd sucks but directors like Antonioni and Barbet Schroeder are good at framing them to make them look good
― Josefa, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:10 (one year ago) link
Interested in hearing why you think that about this one in specific. Most Antonioni I've seen boils down to beautiful people looking sad while walking down the streets of European cities - Zabriskie Point actually the closest I've seen him to being cerebral. But I think that kind of pure vibe filmmaking has its place and the pure beauty makes up for some of the emptiness.
Amazing stuff. "Tonight on the show, Mel Brooks and TWO FUCKING CULT MEMBERS."
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 25 January 2023 11:03 (one year ago) link
I remember reading in Astral Weeks about Jonathan Richman referring to “that Mel guy.”
― Cry for a Shadowgraph (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 11:32 (one year ago) link
The leader of the cult I mean, not Brooks.
― Cry for a Shadowgraph (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 25 January 2023 11:33 (one year ago) link