Blow Up | David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave

Blow Up | David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave | All Buildup, No Pay Off...Still a Masterpiece

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Blow Up

	Blow Up David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave Warner Home Video, 2004 average customer review:based on 157 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Blow Up

I saw this film when I was 16 as it was a recent release. That was around 1966 or so. It influenced me so much that I followed the career yearnings I gained from it and after two college degress in Photography ( B.F.A., M.A.) I opened my studio in 1971. I have had a great career traveling the world producing images for a whole range of clients.

The mystery of the murder and the end of the movie really tell the story of photography. You can see it, but you must live the experience of involvement to understand. I will forever appreciate this film. It was a directional moment at first sight.

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All Buildup, No Pay Off...Still a Masterpiece

"Blowup" was the English-language debut of already famous Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, was a massive success upon it's release, still ends up on lists of Great movies, but is rarely seen by today's audiences. Sad, since this is a great movie. It's great because it leads us into a plot where we think we know what's going to happen, then it doesn't. Not only does IT not happen. Nothing really happens. It deserves comparison to Antonioni's "L'Aventurra" a movie in which a character disappears, setting up a mystery about what happened to her. Instead, that's it right there. She disappears and is never heard from again. In this movie, a photographer believes he has witnessed a murder and, at one point, even sees the corpse. But did he really witness a murder? Did he even really see a corpse? Is it a dream? This movie actually (something I've never heard anyone mention) seems to be an inspiration to filmmakers like David Lynch; We're presented with images that don't really make sense, but intrigue us nonetheless and don't take away from the story. David Hemmings plays Thomas, a popular London photographer, who spends his days taking photographs of "birds" who crowd outside wanting to get their pictures taken and, possibly, seduce him. Thomas isn't a particularly likeable guy; He holds an unexplained contempt for women and is rude to people around him. One day, while walking through a park, he spots a woman (Vanessa Redgrave) and a man and begins lurking around taking pictures of them. This scene gives us no hint of what he's going to encounter later. As he takes pictures of this woman and man, the woman spots him and chases after him. She asks Thomas to give her the film, but he declines and leaves. When he gets back to his apartment/studio, she appears. She takes off her shirt, tries to seduce him, he succumbs and gives her the film, and, finally, she leaves...She leaves, of course, with the wrong film and as soon as she's gone...Thomas develops the pictures. After a quick interlude, in which he has a sexual romp with two women who want their pictures take, he returns to the photographs and notices something odd. He blows the photos up, does it again, and then begins to believe he has witnessed a murder. There appears to be a gunman hiding in some bushes, the woman appears to be looking towards him, and finally he appears to have photographed a corpse. The pictures are abstract, but seem clear enough. He returns to the park later that night and sees a corpse...This scene is completely misleading. This isn't a shot where he appears to see a corpse in the distance, to make the audience ask themselves
"Does he really see it?" There's a close-up of the corpse that seems to leave no other conclusion except that there is one. Then we get a haunting scene where he stops his car in front of a club and sees the woman standing there. She turns, takes a couple steps, and is gone. She literally disappears into thin air. By the end of the film, we realize that the murder isn't even the point of the film. Odd since that's exactly what the movie leads us to believe almost to the final shot. And the final shot is a great one. If you've seen a movie by Antonioni (I've seen L'Aventurra and The Passenger), then you know that he's not a director that cuts to the chase. He paces his film very slowly. So slow, some people have called his films dull. This movie is not dull; it's fascinating...Whether you have any idea what's going on or not. It's not an extremely entertaining movie, but I didn't find it dull or boring and I frequently found myself glued to the screen. I'd have to watch the other two again to be sure, but as of now I'd say this is my favorite Antonioni film.

GRADE: A-

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only one reason to purchase this film

this film has footage of the yardbirds with jimmy page and jeff beck both playing lead guitar on "stroll on".actually it's "train kept a rollin" but they were unable to acquire the rights so they rewrote it.there is no other footage of these future superstars together and beck left the band not long after.if your a zeppelin fan,yardbirds or jeff beck fan i recommend this film.the who were originally sought but turned it down.hence the guitar smashing bit.

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