|
Blowup
(1966, UK)
In Michelangelo Antonioni's breakthrough, absorbing
first English language film, set in mod-Swinging 60s London:
- the scene in a swinging London photographer's studio
where hip, disinterested, often introverted and jaded fashion photographer
Thomas (David Hemmings) engaged in a frenzied camera-shoot scene
with various 'birds' - including skinny, writhing model Veruschka
(Herself) during a solo shoot, urging her orgasmically as he straddled
her on the floor with his phallic camera: "On your back. Go
on. Yes. Now really give it. Come on. Come on. Work, work, work!
Great. Great. And again. Come on. Back. Back. Arms up. Arms up.
Stretch yourself, little lady. Great. And again. Go on. Go. Go.
That's great. That's it! Keep it up. Lovely. Yeah, make it come.
Great. No, no, head up, head up. Now for me, love. For me. Now!
Now! Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Orgasmic Fashion-Model Photo Shoot
|
|
|
|
- the scene of Thomas innocently following and taking
photographs in a serene East London park, first of pigeons, a litter
collector, wind blowing through trees, and the wide expanse of
green grass, and then he came upon what he thought was a tryst
between lovers (a distant view of a young woman and a middle-aged
man embracing); he furtively captured the scene in his voyeuristic
camera, but then the woman approached angrily and protested his
intrusion on their privacy: ("Stop it. Stop it! Give me those
pictures. You can't photograph people like that...This is a public
place. Everyone has a right to be left in peace"); when she
tried to grab his camera away, he refused: "What's the rush?";
afterwards, she ran off, and stood momentarily by a distant tree
- the sequence of the Girl (Vanessa Redgrave) from
the park desperately and seductively asking for the film; she bargained
for Thomas' roll of incriminating film that he had shot of her in
a public park with an unidentified, middle-aged man; she eventually
offered sexual favors after going topless; Thomas gave her a roll
of film, but kept the one she wanted
- the exciting montage of the stages of the pictures'
development, printing and magnified enlargement in the darkroom scene
- especially when Thomas believed he saw a shadowy figure and a hand
holding a gun in the bushes behind a fence, and possibly a dead body
Storyboarding the Photos - A Possible Murder?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- the controversial sequence of Thomas' encounter
with two naked, naive young wanna-be teenage models or "dolly
birds"
(blonde Jane Birkin and brunette Gillian Hills) in his studio (39),
when they stopped by on their second visit; while trying on clothes,
the skinny blonde was stripped of her clothes by Thomas, and then
she wrestled her dark-haired friend and she was stripped too, claiming:
"She's got a better figure than me"; eventually in a pre-threesome
orgy sequence, the trio ended up frolicking and rolling around on
an extended roll of purple backdrop paper
The Wrestling/Orgy Scene with Two Teens
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- during Thomas' return nighttime visit to the park,
the haunting sound of the wind blowing through the trees - and
his discovery of the scene of the murder and a man's prone corpse
next to a tree
- upon his return to his photographic studio, the shocking
realization that someone had stolen the majority of his negatives
and prints of the incident - and later his return to the park the
next day to find the body missing
- the final enigmatic scene of a group of mimes playing
a mute game of tennis with an invisible, non-existent tennis ball
on a tennis court (the soundtrack picked up the sound of the tennis
ball however) - Thomas joined in the game (and threw the imaginary
ball back to them)
- the film ended with an aerial view of Thomas standing
at a distance in the middle of a grassy field in the park near the
tennis court, with his camera in his hand; he faded from view just
before the words THE END zoomed forward
|
Photos in the Park
The Girl's Desperation to Get the Film
Examining the Photos in Detail
Body in Park Found During Nighttime Visit
Stolen Photos
Missing Body the Next Day
Muted and Pantomimed Game of Tennis
Aerial View Ending
|