Blow-Up is considered one of director Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpieces. Released in 1966, it is inspired by the story The devil's burrs by the Argentinian Julio Cortázar: the film was the most awarded ever by the Emilian director, together with La notte, and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967. To retrace its history is FIRST Art, FIRSTonline channel dedicated to art and culture, which a few weeks ago launched an interesting experiment: re-proposing the reviews of the great films of that era, according to what critics wrote in those years. In this case we start from an extraordinary interview by Alberto Moravia with Antonioni, published in L'Espresso in 1967.
“Did you know that you like male characters better than female ones?” the writer asks him, for example. "It's the first time I've heard that. Usually they say the opposite,” replies the director. “Of course – Moravia rejoices -, you were able to create memorable female characters. But while it would seem that these characters somehow escape you, that is, they are mysterious not only to the viewer but also to yourself, the male characters seem more dominated and therefore more characterized and delimited. In short, they are more “characters” than female characters. But let's go, let's go back to Blow Up. So you recognize a relationship between the English episode of The vanquished e blow-up?"
"I would say no. It may well be that you as a critic and viewer are right; but I do not see this relationship. I've never thought about it. Blow-Up is very different from the episode of The losers. Even the meaning is different”, argues the director, who in 1995 won the honorary Oscar for his career. “For me the story is important, of course; but what matters most are the images”, Antonioni continues, rattling off goodies and reflections. Then there are the reviews of other great critics of the time: Gian Luigi Rondi, Giovanni Grazzini, Aggeo Savioli, Mario Soldati and others.
