William Benker
History of Film II
3/23/08
Marty Norden
A PERSONAL QUEST FOR MEANING
Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up can be placed in any number of film categories. With a title as vague as “Blow-Up,” Antonioni blurs the categorical boundaries where a film cannot easily be placed. Antonioni’s finely tuned craft of filmmaking leaves the audience with mixed emotions and uncertainties that further their impulse to see more. Perhaps the new realm in which its director had recently taken can account for the uncertain identity of Blow-Up. As his first film in English, Antonioni masques his film in a stylistic backdrop of 1960’s London while cleverly delivering a tale of alienation, deception and uncertainty. Critics and audiences around the world marveled at its ambiguity, while much like its title, Blow-Up rises above common categories of film into its own realm of unclear seclusion and disorientation.
Antonioni’s use of conflicting messages and meaning throughout the film only add to its ultimate deception. Conflict itself seems to lie at the base of Blow-Up, or in the least the conflict that arises once too many questions are raised regarding the conflict. Through its present day cultural scene, Antonioni uses contrast unlike all other directors placing the objective work of the camera into a divided question. Reality is placed in the mix of all that is style, and the audience is submerged in an ocean of uncertainty. As well as the inability for money and glam to save you from the depths of loneliness, David Hemming’s character seems to have everything one could desire in 1960’s London. Surrounded by beautiful women and the artistic freedom to capture the world in his camera, Hemming’s character is ultimately alone and unsatisfied with the commercial world he lives in. Hemming’s personal struggle is driven by the possibility that he may have had an impact on a murder. The popular fashion photographer is seeking murder, when in reality he’s only looking for him self.
The first scene of the film depicts a group of free spirited mimes driving wildly across the stark concrete business buildings. The clash of cultures between two worlds is the fuel of the film. Upon first seeing Hemmings leaving the desolate factory among the dismal factory workers, one could confuse him as just another lower class citizen, though this is far from the truth. By Thomas’s Rolls Royce, the audience realizes he must be of some higher income, and Antonioni’s deception begins. This mixture of signals revealing who is what character occurs frequently throughout the film.
Women play an integral role in Blow-Up. For both the narrative tale and overall theme of commercial success, women lead the audience through Hemming’s alienation. For instance, the fellow artist Thomas wishes to purchase a painting from seems to have a girlfriend or assistance, though this is never clarified. Thomas’s relationship with the girl is also unclear, though she seems to provide him with the only solace he receives throughout the entire film. Messaging his neck, Thomas is at ease for a moment, but after seeing the two in bed, he’s torn and distanced again from the world. This type of equivocal relationship with Thomas occurs again with the women involved in the possible murder. While Thomas decides whether to give the girl the pictures he opens up to her, and tries to connect on some level with the stranger. “Against the beat” Hemming’s instructs her on her movements with the music, but the tension is too much for her and she leaves abruptly. Thomas can’t seem to find the right means to connect with people, and the only intimacy he receives is with his models.
With the possibility that there was no murder and it could all have been some type of mysterious fantasy for Thomas, one must investigate his alternative goals he seeks out throughout Blow-Up. The profession of a photographer is to capture the essence of the picture through the image. Thomas takes a vacation from his profession by searching through an antique store. During the first visit to the store, Thomas is looking for a landscape, but when he returns he finds a propeller, an allusion to escaping his unsatisfied life. Author Robin Wood describes the junk shop trader and the artist’s girlfriend in her book “Antonioni,” as “fully crystallized reflections of the uncertainty that is developing within Thomas.” This theory of uncertainty can be related on two levels to Hemming’s character. Uncertainty in his life and uncertain of what he may have witnessed, Thomas is losing his grip on reality. Wood chooses her words carefully by “crystallized reflections,” in the sense that Thomas can’t place these two girls in any type of category. The artist’s girlfriend may be the personification of Thomas’s inability to have somebody to connect to, and the junk trader is free of her life and can leave at any moment, something Thomas cannot do.
Antonioni utilizes the artistic scene of 1960’s London to further the narrative. Wild artistic expression and Thomas’s search for reality is almost a lost cause. During the film, Hemming’s character watches a band play an underground club as the crowd is mesmerized by the music. Despite the artistic freedom the audience resembles mindless zombies. Once the guitar is broken the manifestation of art itself becomes a material object, causing the audience to erupt. This sequence of events in the club reveals much of Thomas himself and the fashion scene he’s involved with. Antonioni’s intention is a quest to capture the essence of art in some type of physical realm, while his protagonist is merely coming to grips with the possibility that it cannot be attained. Chatman, another Antonioni scholar writes “The artist [Thomas] is doomed to frustration: reality will always elude him, and simulation will not satisfy his demands for perfection.” Reality in other words, cannot be attained since Thomas isn’t capturing anything real in himself, and the lifestyle he lives proves to only be a false identity. Hemming’s desperately clutches the piece of mangled guitar, but once outside the scene, he disposes of it, knowing all to well it means next to nothing.
Towards the end of the film, Thomas’s character comes upon many personal conclusions. After seeking out the woman in the photo to simply gather back his grip on reality, Hemming’s finds himself at a marijuana party going on. Stoned and unresponsive, Thomas is unable to speak to his friend and finally succumbs to the ultimate conclusion that what he saw in the park was “nothing.” Antonioni has his protagonist beaten by the counter-culture and placed in his own desolate realm. The only time Thomas doesn’t have his camera with him is when he finds the body lying there, and the only means of proof that what he witnessed was real is ultimately gone.
Fortunately the ending of Blow-Up may be considered a resolute one. The mimes return from the beginning of the film to further their own realities ideals. Riding wild the mimes run out to the park and create their own game of tennis. Much like Thomas and his own game of deception, he eventually chooses to play along with the mimes world of make believe. This idea of perception and reality it taken to another level as the audience can then begin to ask what is truly real. Objectivity is the backdrop of the film while Antonioni pursues that idea of subjectivity. Robert Lyons writes “His [Thomas] participation in the imaginary tennis game before his ultimate disappearance is but an appropriate epilogue to his self-discovery on reality’s terms” as Thomas chooses to embrace the reality he cannot escape. This “self-discovery” discussed is a realization that the world Thomas lives in is one that isn’t really that close to reality at all. Fashion and artistic expression isn’t any more real than the murder Hemming’s may have witnessed.
Antonioni’s Blow-Up is among one of the great films of its time, yet its mixed meanings can be universally associated. With the deception of culture itself, Antonioni undermines reality to illustrate the face of reality in its most empty form. The audience has the ability to be engaged in the theories of Blow-Up, and the conclusions are much like the film, all too unclear. Through the subjectivity of the well off protagonist Thomas, reality is put into question by beautiful fashion models and hip 60’s rock bands. Uncertainty mirrors the world of cultures and counter cultures and Antonioni marvels at the power of the imagination. What may be the only common aspect of Blow-Up is its underlying meaning that wealth and power cannot make someone happy, but only alienate themselves more from the real world. Antonioni consciously places the audience in the envious position to witness the beauty of the 60’s, only to illustrate the point that it was never actually real, and the happiness was found not in the culture, but the people themselves.
Seymour Chatman “Antonioni, or the Surface of the World” Pg.143
Robert Lyons “Michelangelo Antonioni’s Neo-Realism, A World View” Pg.152