4/5 a classic art movie rolls on.
  by Michael P. Dobey (colorado springs)
This movie like alot of art movies has lots of images and ideas thrown at the viewer without really trying to tie up plot lines. These type of movies are a aquired taste for sure. Personally I like a straight narrative in a movie but that's not what this is about. It is about pictures and a young man's search for the answer to a mystery which becomes not important to the director in the end. However it was 1966 when this movie came out and it was different so it does still stand up as great movie of it's type. And it does have excellent actors in it; the late david hemmings and a young sexy vanessa redgrave put in strong performances here, and it includes a great cameo from the great rock band the yardbirds in which Jeff Beck blows up and smashes his guitar in anger. So if you are looking for a straight storyline don't look here but if you are into arty image driven movies in which characters search for things then this one may be to your liking. This is a historical artifact too as it gives us a view of what was considered very avante garde in the midsixties.

5/5 The labyrinth of realities ....
  by Edmonson (Canada)
Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blow-Up" features David Hemmings as the photographer. This film follows the photographer into a park where he takes photos of a couple embracing and playing. It is later when he develops the photos that he finds out that he has evidence of a murder in the backgrounds of the photos.

The movie is as much about the photgrapher in the film as it is about Antonioni, who is also the photographer of the movie. In the movie when Hemmings develops the photos he is trying to put together the reality of the scene, and he is trying to impose a narrative on the scene he has viewed just as the director himself through a sequence of scenes is creating a narrative. Can reality ever really make sense though? Here, the photographer is going over photo after photo in order to try and recreate the past moment that he witnessed. Interestingly enough while we are watching the scenes there is no sound or music except the haunting sounds we heard in the park of the leaves of the trees rustling in the wind. Through these sequences of shots a marvelous build up of drama is created as we speculate about what he is going to find. Eventually he does find a man in the woods holding a gun, and believes that he has prevented a murder. It is through a series of shots like these that Antonioni's genius for film making is conveyed. After blowing up a few more photos he finds a body and realizes that someone was killed after all.

There is a scene that is important in the film that shows an artist in his studio who makes a comment that he often doesn't know what he has made until after the fact. And it is only after he has had some time to view the painting that some aspect of it begins to have meaning for him. It is at this point that he has then imposed meaning on the image. This could be said to be the way Antonioni works through his own work as a director. When the photographer goes back to the park to see if the body is there it is to verify the reality of what he has seen in the photos. After he sees the body in the park he then must find someone else in order to verify his view because reality only has meaning in a social context. But then when he goes back to his studio he finds that someone has stolen the photos, and so the evidence of the murder is gone. When he returns to the body in order to photograph the body it also is gone. Now he can't prove that there was a murder. The blown up photos look like one of Bill's abstract paintings where there was no meaning until the artist imposed one on the image, just as Hemming's character too has imposed meaning on the photos he has taken. By blowing up the photos it is as if he has revealed layers under layers to find meaning, but has he found any meaning if he can't now prove it to anyone else? Vanessa Redgrave's character appears again and then disappears. Constantly we are led through this labyrinth where the truth remains elusive. Meaning is shown as only having meaning if it is in a social context as meaning is a social construction. Hemming is never able to verify his reality since he can never get anyone to see the corpse.

In the last scene, with the mimes, we have a group of people participating in the illusion of a tennis game which the photographer witnesses. We are shown that the imaginary tennis game has meaning because this group of mimes buy into this reality. Eventually Hemming's character also buys into this reality as he goes to retrieve the imaginary ball that was hit over the fence. Even the camera buys into this reality as it too follows the flight of the imaginary ball which flies over the fence and rolls over the grass. Ultimately Hemming's character disappears which seems to reaffirm that this is the director's reality that he has created.
Blow-Up is about these layers of meaning that are constantly being pealed away as if there is no true reality that can be seen since reality is constantly shifting depending on the context or point of view.

1/5 Long, Slow-Moving and Pointless
  by David G. Young (Washington, DC United States)
While visually compelling, this film contains too little plot movement, too little dialogue, and too many unnecessary scenes to maintain a contemporary viewer's attention. The story could easily be told in 20 minutes, yet the film goes on for two hours in what seems like an effort to run out the clock. Its slick mid-1960s style looks intriguingly contemporary in some cases, but in other cases wears thin with free-love and experimental drug culture cliches. Those seeking a background video that relives the glory of the 1960s may enjoy this film. Those seeking a film with a real plot that engages the intellect would be wise to look elsewhere.


5/5 1966 BLOW UP
  by Dr. Feelgood (USA)
Art film,(even the name suggests the pop art culture of the times) which still maintains a narrative drama, designed by mystery and suspense. Although the filmmaker is Italian, the film is primarily a British film production, and also influenced by filmmaker's of the French New Wave, like Truffaut and Godard. Not to mention the Hollywood elements of the film, that resemble Hitchcock's take, on this particular genre. All in all, an interesting film, told in a somewhat unique way. The film relies heavily upon the visual elements, because the film is partly about perspective or point of view.

5/5 Fashion Costume Photographer Must!
  by Trust Me (New York New York)
Watch it for the costumes, the photoshoots! A must for anyone interested in fashion history, 1960s london, Irving Penn-esque fashion photoshoots, Jane Birkin, and Verushka