Michelangelo Antonioni

Michelangelo Antonioni (born September 29, 1912 in Ferrara, Italy) is widely seen as the greatest Italian film director after Federico Fellini.

Themes

He described himself as a Marxist intellectual, but some authors advance some doubts about his effective adherence to Marxism. In contrast with his contemporaries, including the neorealists and also Federico Fellini, Ermanno Olmi and Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose stories generally dealt with the lives of the working class and the misfits and outcasts of society, Antonioni's most notable films revolved around the elite and the urban bourgeois. However, contrary to what these critics say, his films depict his wealthy characters as empty and soulless, rather than romanticizing them. La Notte depicts the disintegration of a wealthy married couple who can no longer connect meaningfully; L'Avventura depicts the story of a woman who goes missing during a wealthy yachting trip, and whose fiance and best friend subsequently develop a sexual relationship under the pretence of looking for her, but are unable to develop genuine love for each other; Blowup depicts the superficial world of a 1960s fashion photographer in the "mod" scene, who in the end proves indifferent when called upon to report a potential murder. In a similar vein, Zabriskie Point is often interpreted as a criticism of American capitalism, and, though seemingly critical of bourgeois American hippies, sympathetically depicts their desire for escape. Antonioni's films also tend to be sensitive to the beauty of landscapes--such as the California desert in Zabriskie Point, or the rocky islands in L'Avventura--which adds not only to the visually stunning quality of his work, but also to his depiction of the rich as arrogant lost souls vainly attempting to impose their finite will upon an unyielding and sublime nature. Thus, despite his critics, Antonioni's films ruthlessly dissect the rich with a disapproving Marxist sensibility, even as his camerawork displays a fascination for the ornate settings of the wealthy class.

Related Topics:
Marxist intellectual - Federico Fellini - Ermanno Olmi - Pier Paolo Pasolini - Hippies

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