As often with Antonioni, a film riddled with moments of brilliance and scuppered by infuriating pretensions.
Comment
06/24/06
Blow-Up (1966)
85 %
Reviews Counted: 34 Fresh: 29 Rotten:5 Average Rating: 7.9/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Synopsis: Michelangelo Antonioni delivers yet another masterful cinematic expose with BLOW UP, a provocative mystery set in the seamy mod culture of London. The film follows a photographer (David Hemmings) who captures evidence of a murder when he takes some innocent snapshots of a couple in the... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, David Hemmings, Sarah Miles, Jill Kennington, Verushka
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Reviews
Top Critic
Michelangelo Antonioni's first English language film is as maddening to watch as it is absorbing.
01/01/00
Top Critic
This is so ravishing to look at (the colors all seem newly minted) and pleasurable to follow (the enigmas are usually more teasing than worrying) that you're likely to excuse the metaphysical pretensions.
07/31/07
There may be some meaning, some commentary about life being a game, beyond what remains locked in the mind of film's creator, Italian director-writer Michelangelo Antonioni. But it is doubtful that the general public will get the 'message' of this film.
07/31/07
Top Critic
The natural world is arrayed against the artificial scene; conscience is deployed against convention. If you’ve never seen Blow-Up, see it now, if only to see what part of the world was like 40 years ago.
06/07/06
Whether there was a murder isn't the point. The film is about a character mired in ennui and distaste, who is roused by his photographs into something approaching passion.
01/20/06
Top Critic
Speaks to the inescapability of modern man’s emotional and spiritual alienation.
05/03/05
Peter Brunette’s detailed and entertaining commentary refreshingly acknowledges that, at many points, 'Things don’t add up in this movie.'
04/26/04
Antonioni’s chic study in ambiguity calls into question the notion of photographic truth, and indeed reality itself.
03/05/04
Relying only on our subjective perceptions and personal interpretations, we are asked to find the truth for ourselves.
03/03/04
Related Forums
BLOWUP (movie of the week #39) discussion thread
by: Grizzly 8/5/02
by: Grizzly 8/5/02
News
Remembering Michelangelo Antonioni
posted by Jen Yamato July 31, 2007
Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, who gave the world such influential films as L'Avventura, Blow-Up, and The...
posted by Jen Yamato July 31, 2007
Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, who gave the world such influential films as L'Avventura, Blow-Up, and The...
RT Critical Consensus: "Doom" Gloom, "Country" Sounds Sweet
posted by Tim Ryan October 20, 2005
This week at the movies brings stories of marines on Mars ("Doom"), iron miners fighting the man...
posted by Tim Ryan October 20, 2005
This week at the movies brings stories of marines on Mars ("Doom"), iron miners fighting the man...
Around the Network
• Blow-Up at Rotten Tomatoes
IGN RSS Feeds