I saw this movie a couple of times when I was a film student and rediscovering it ten years later was a delight. Perhaps it is one of those films that are mostly seen by students, but it was in fact a hit in 1966. This is a movie one should simply experience. Just lean back, enjoy it and don’t analyze it to death.
Attractive models are his work
We meet a fashionable London photographer called Thomas (David Hemmings) who spends his days coming up with new fanciful ways of shooting attractive models and scouring antique shops for props that might come in handy for photo sessions. One day he just grows tired of the whole thing, grabs a camera and heads out to a park. Suddenly, he comes across a couple in the distance who are embracing. The woman, Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), discovers Thomas taking pictures of her and runs to him, demanding to have his roll film. He refuses, but tells her she can have the pictures of her once they’re developed. Reluctantly, she agrees.
A short while later, she comes to his studio. They come close to having sex, but she leaves him after getting the wrong roll film. When Thomas finally gets to work on the pictures, he makes a startling discovery. One of the photos shows Jane looking at something with a disconcerted expression in her face. Thomas keeps blowing up the picture and discovers what looks like a man holding a gun. That night he heads out to the park and discovers the dead body of a man…
First English-language film
Blowup was director Michelangelo Antonioni’s first English-language film and it was shot in London, cunningly capturing everything that was “swinging” about the era. Hemmings plays the photographer as pretty much a self-satisfied prick. Several famous models appear as themselves, including Verushka and Jane Birkin, sporting whatever fanciful wardrobe that was the craze of the day. Typical features of the era include a bizarre orgy scene where two girls wrestle with Thomas and each other clad in nothing but a pair of brightly colored panty hose, as well as an odd concert sequence with the The Yardbirds (where the director truly challenges his audience). We also have Herbie Hancock’s contemporary music and the rags, students with white-painted faces who drive around in a jeep, making cheerful noises and collecting money for charity. All this is “swinging” London and it’s fascinating to behold.
As for the mystery, we wonder who is Jane? What has she got to do with the murder? Who was murdered? Was there even a murder? Antonioni is playing with Thomas as well as his audience and it’s all about the atmosphere and illusions; wind blowing through the leaves in the park matters as much as everything else. The mystery has no other meaning, in one of Antonioni’s very best films, one that would inspire future thrillers.
Blowup ends with the rags doing a mime act. They’re pretending to play tennis and suddenly Thomas can hear the sound of the non-existent balls hitting the non-existent rackets. It’s a complete illusion… just like the whole film.
Blowup 1966-U.K.-Italy. 111 min. Color. Produced by Carlo Ponti. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Screenplay: Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra. Short Story: Julio Cortázar. Music: Herbie Hancock. Cast: Vanessa Redgrave (Jane), David Hemmings (Thomas), Sarah Miles (Patricia), Jill Kennington, Verushka, Peter Bowles, Jane Birkin, The Yardbirds.
Trivia: Playwright Edward Bond contributed to the dialogue. Sean Connery and Terence Stamp were considered for the part of Thomas.
Cannes: Palme d’Or.
Last word: “I would say my films are political, but not about politics. They are political in their approach; they are made from a definite point of view. And they may be political in the effect they have on people. Blowup, for example, was not only about a certain life style in London, but it expressed a feeling about that style. And yet I wouldn’t want to put that feeling into words…” (Antonioni, RogerEbert.com)
