Film master Antonioni

In 1942, he collaborated with Roberto Rossellini on the script for "Un pilota ritorna" (The Return of the Pilot), and also acted in Enrico Fulchignoni's film "I due Foscari" "As an assistant director. In 1943, Antonioni went to France to assist Marcel Carnet in the filming of "Les Visiteurs du soir" (Les Visiteurs du soir, also translated as "The Night Visitors" or "The Night Visitors"). Antonioni began making short films in the 1940s. Gente del Po (People of the Po) is a story about poor fishermen on the Po River (Antonioni worked on the Po River from 1943 to 1947). These short films are in the style of Neorealism, a semi-documentary study of the lives of local residents.

However, Antonioni's first feature film "Cronaca di un amore" (Cronaca di un amore, also translated as "Love Record", "Love Story", "Love Story", "Love Chronicle" or "Record of a Certain Love," 1950) escaped neorealism by describing the middle class. He continued to create a series of films: "The Loser" (I Vinti, 1953), which is a series of stories about juvenile delinquency that occurred in different countries (France, Italy and the United Kingdom); "La Traviata Without Camellias" (La Traviata) Signora senza camelie (1953), about a young movie star and her fall from grace; and Le Amiche (1955), about middle-class women in Turin. "The King of the Road" (Il Grido, also translated as "The Shout", "The Wanderer", "The Scream", 1957) returns to the story of the working class, describing a factory worker and his daughter. Every story is about social alienation.

In 1972, between "Infinite Spring on the Dangerous Peak" and "The Passenger", Antonioni was invited by the People's Republic of China government to visit China after the Cultural Revolution. He made the documentary "Chung Kuo - Cina", but the film was severely condemned by the Chinese authorities on the grounds of being "anti-China" and "anti-***". The first screening of this documentary in China was on November 25, 2004 in Beijing, at a film festival held by the Beijing Film Academy to commemorate Antonioni's contribution.

In 1980, Antonioni made "Il Mistero di Oberwald" (Il Mistero di Oberwald), which was an experiment in electronic color processing: it was first shot with a television camera (using 625 lines , 50-field format), and then converted to film, which is different from the general method of shooting directly with film negatives. This is also the first time a feature film has been shot using a television camera (video), and it can be said to be a pioneer in digital cinema. The film stars Antonioni's frequent collaborator Monica Vitti and is adapted from Jean Cocteau's story "The Death of the Two-Headed Eagle" (The Death of the Two-Headed Eagle). ) (Jean Cocteau filmed the film "The Death of the Double-Headed Eagle" in 1948).

The film Identificazione di una donna (1982) was filmed in Italy and once again dealt with the same issues in the trilogy series.

In 1985, Antonioni suffered a stroke, leaving him half paralyzed and unable to speak. However, he continued to make films, including Al di là delle nuvole (Al di là delle nuvole, also translated as Love and Desire in the Clouds, 1995), co-produced with Wim Wenders. Four of his short stories were adapted for the screen. Vin Wenders served as the alternate director and was responsible for shooting four scenes in the film. This film won the critic's FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice Film Festival at the same time as "Cyclo".

In the same year, he won the American Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. It was awarded to Jack Nicholson. Months later, the statuette was stolen by a burglar and later returned. Prior to this, he had been nominated for the Oscar for Best Director and Best Screenplay for "Bleeding Lights".

Antonioni’s last film, made when he was in his 90s, was a segment of the TV series (anthology film) Eros (2004). 〉(Il filo pericoloso delle cose). The original motive of making this film was to pay tribute to Antonioni, and it ended up consisting of three short films; directors Wong Kar-Wai and Steven Soderbergh, who have openly stated that they were deeply influenced by Antonioni, each shot one, with Antonioni's own footnotes. .

This collection of short films is framed by hazy compositions and the song "Michelangelo Antonioni" composed and sung by Caetano Veloso.

The American DVD release of this film includes another Antonioni short film from 2004, "Lo Sguardo di Michelangelo" (The Gaze of Michelangelo).

Antonioni passed away in Rome on July 30, 2007, at the age of 94. Another great film director, Ingmar Bergman, also passed away on the same day. Antonioni's remains are currently in the Rome Municipal House until his funeral on August 2, 2007. The city government also set up a large screen in the mourning hall to display Antonioni's black and white continuous scenes, including the background and backstage of the film.

Film historian Virginia Wright Wexman describes Antonioni's view of the world as that of a "postreligious Marxist and existential intellectual" Way. [10] A speech by Antonioni in Cannes talked about L'Avventura (1960). He said that in this modern era of rationality and science, human beings have always survived by "harsh and rigid morality that is considered and assumed to be cowardice and utter laziness." He said that movies can see through contradictions - we look at those moral opinions very carefully, we study and analyze them to the point of exhaustion. We have the ability to do it, but we do not have the ability to discover new ways. [11] Nine years later, he expressed the same view in an interview. He said that he hated the word morality: when people become content with nature, and when spiritual space becomes his real background, these words and views (referring to morals) will lose their meaning and we will no longer need to use them.

Therefore, one of the recurring themes in Antonioni's films is that the lives of protagonists who endure ennui are empty and aimless except for the satisfaction of sensual entertainment or the pursuit of material wealth. . Film historian David Bordwell writes that in Antonioni's films, holidays, parties, and artistic pursuits of recreation cannot disguise the protagonist's lack of purpose and emotion. Sex is casual temptation, and the protagonist pursues wealth at any cost.

Antonioni's films tend to omit plot and dialogue, and spend most of their time lingering on specific situations, such as the ten-minute long scene in "Professione: reporter" (1975). The camera, or Monica Vitti staring curiously at the electronic signage in L'Eclisse (1962), is paired with ambient sounds and the sound of circuits clanking. Virginia Wright Wexman explained his style this way:

"...the camera is placed far more in the mid-range than in the close-up, frequently moving slowly, and the lens allows for The editing is used to extend the continuity so that each frame is more complex, capable of carrying more information than is usually the case in a smaller environment... In Antonioni's work we must understand him in detail. He forces all our attention through the continuous shot until it is cut..."

Antonioni is also noted for his development of color in his cinematic style. As an important expression element, especially in his first color film, "Il Deserto rosso" (1964).

David Bordwell believes that Antonioni's films have a huge influence on art films: "More than other directors, he encourages filmmakers to explore simple styles and An open-ended narrative."

Antonioni's minimalist style and purposeless characters were not appreciated by all reviewers. Ingmar Bergman once said that he admired some of Antonioni's films for their unemotional and sometimes hazy quality. However, when he thought of "Welcome to Love" and "Night", he called Antonioni's other films boring and said he didn't understand why Antonioni was so revered.