Blow-up (1966, Antonioni)

"Blow-up" is a film where something slightly interesting happens between two long, dry spells of nothingness. It reaches a point where the plot seems to finally materialise after over 30 minutes - when a photographer hits upon a series of sequential pictures that hint at a murder captured by chance - and then it goes back to exploring its plotless premise. Celebrated as an art-house favourite from the 60's, the film has been influential on Coppola's "The Conversation" (a much superior film in every way and a personal favourite) and DePalma's "Blow Out". Here too is a man that finds something he should not, but in a distinct departure from what we might expect (and also what might interest us), the man seems rarely perturbed and the script remains at odds with this finding, choosing instead the unremarkable exploits of its horny protagonist who flirts with the women who chase him to snap them up. On one such random occasion, he meets up with a beautiful Vanessa Redgrave (half naked for most of her appearance), who wants him to return the prints of her that he took at the park. This leads him to take a close look at the park photos and discover what looks like an act of murder.

A film that sets up a premise of mystery should follow it up with some threat or danger. In "Blow-up", the hapless, arrogant, uninteresting lead never seems to be either at odds with the situation he finds himself in or his own conscience. In fact, the film almost seems to succeed when it seems it might address this amoral act of ignoring a potential crime. But the film has other, more trivial pursuits and a real punch seems to elude it to the point of making it ultimately banal.

Rating: 2/5

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