Blow-Up was Michelangelo Antonioni's first English-language film. It's a withering critique of 1960s Man - the absurdity of his self-importance, the emptiness of his preoccupations. How devastatingly cool he - and everyone and everything around him - looks on the surface.
It's much more than that, of course, but none of that matters here. See that exit ramp? Take it. It's time for:
Today's selection: London, 1966. Make and model: Rolls Royce, Silver Cloud III.
ACT 1: THE FOOLS.
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| Plaza of The Economist, Piccadilly. |
ACT 2: THE FOOL
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| Stockwell Road, Heddon Street, Regent Street, and various roads in Chelsea and Charlton. |
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| Throughout the film, the main character (David Hemmings) speaks to his assistant over a CB radio. |
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| These scenes almost seem like speculative fiction in 2015, much like the communicators in Star Trek or whatever example you like. |
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| He uses the CB like many who drive and talk on their cellphones use it: as an augment for their ego, roving, broadcast into public places: |
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| A talisman. |
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| Or maybe a propeller. |
Blow-Up is a film of many memorable but bewildering scenes. One of them involves our hero coming across a parade of protestors.
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| One of them adorns his car with this. |
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| He seems to cheerfully accept it, but almost immediately we see it flutter off into traffic as he picks up speed. |
I didn't know what to make of this until I got the DVD and listened to the late Peter Brunette's commentary track. "This is the extent of his political involvement." I quite like that, and it captures the whole movie for me. Like I said, there's a lot more to it than that. I haven't touched on the actual murder mystery - and don't intend to. Scenic Route!
ACT 3. UNMOVABLE FOOL, IRRESISTIBLE FOOLISHNESS.
You can find your fair share of interpretations out there - best to watch it and reason out your own. For me, Blow-Up was a film I puzzled over for many years and feel I eventually made my peace with. (Still waiting on that to happen with Mulholland Drive. I'm not giving up, though.)
For a look at locations then and now, check out this site. Unfinished as of this writing, but what's there is a public service unparalleled for fans of the film. A sincere chapeau across the waves to Ian S. Bolton.
The Scenic Route celebrates the cars and landscape of a bygone age.
