Blow Up

Title/Year:  Blow Up, 1966 (IMDB)

Director/Birth Country/Year Born:  Michelangelo Antonioni; Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, 1912 (IMDB)
Budget:  $1.8 million (estimated) (IMDB)
Gross:  $20 million worldwide (Jan. 1970) (IMDB)
Synopsis:  A London photographer discovers a murder has taken place from the pictures he took of a couple in a desolate park.
Narrative and Visual Keywords:  Photography, murder, park, mimes, fashion, photo shoot, sex, model(s), The Yardbirds, red room, camera, film, photo, propeller, drugs.
Characterization/ Dialogue:  Thomas, a young London photographer, tries to find a mysterious woman who may have helped in the murder of the man she was with.
Camera/lighting/editing technique:  The film contained some of the newest film techniques, such as camera movement, both by people, and while on a car.
 Political/ Social Commentary:  The film made reference too many social issues at the time.  Thomas shows some of this with his abuse of the women he shoots and the murder of the mystery woman’s assumed husband/boyfriend.  The film also shows the taking over of the newer music genera by showing the Yardbirds playing a song with the crowd looking on enthralled.
Historical Relevance/ Recognition:  This film was made in the new age era of film.
Notable Collaboration:  The Yardbirds performed Stroll On in the movie. 
Random fact, Etc.:  Blow Up was Antonioni’s first English language film. (IMDB)

1.                  I find that the difference between object and subjective reality is hard to detect in Blow Up.  The change/shift between the two is near impossible because the movie is about how real life is a fantasy at times.  It seems that one of the main differences between the two is the amount of meaning to the plot.  The subjective reality scenes did not affect the plot as much as the objective reality scenes did.

2.                  The film did not delve far into the bowls of religion however; the film hit on the romantics of the characters.  Thomas shows most of the romantics in the film, from being abusive to the women he works with, to being a sex obsessed man.  He treats the women whom he works with on photo shoots roughly, yelling and getting physical at times with them.  He also appears to want nothing but sex, when dealing with the mystery woman and the two girls wanting to have their pictures taken.  

3.                 Antonioni shoots several scenes in what could be described as a middle class environment, such as the buildings/city area.  Antonioni grew up in a bourgeois surrounding in the city he lived.  Antonioni seems to have a somewhat bleak outlook on society.  He presents us with someone who either got away with murder, or someone who fabricated the idea that someone was murdered.  The ambiguity of the ending doesn't deduct which is correct.  He also shows abusive/male dominance in the movie, another outlook he may have on society.

"Blow Up." IMDB. Web. 22 Jan 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060176/>.
Benjamin Hilon