Michelangelo Antonioni passes away at 94

Posted by Ajit on July 31, 2007.

Wow, two landmark directors, Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Bergman, passed away on the same day. Strange still is that though they were both from the same generation of filmmakers, I never put their works alongside each other but in their deaths, you could see the similarities. Both embraced silence and black and white in a way that we will most likely never see again. They were the easily amongst the most successful European art directors. When people parodied 70’s art cinema with its stark black & white look and its sparse dialogue, they were essentially making fun of Bergman or Antonioni. While Bergman indirectly talked about God, Antonioni seemed fascinated with existentialism.

Here is Antonioni filmography. L’ Avventura was the first Antonioni film I ever saw and remains my favorite. Among his other films, the great sex scene from Zabriskie Point is a stand-out. Blow-up is another classic which was the basis for Brian De Palma’s Blow Out. I got to check out his other work.