Blow-Up | Murder In The Abstract

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In this video essay I breakdown Michelangelo Antonioni's 60s classic Blow-Up, looking at how it takes the murder mystery thriller and distorts its conventions.
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[@garrison6863]

This film is one of the best of the sixties, which is saying something. Its beautifully shot, and wonderfully acted by Redgrave, Hemmings, and Miles. The final sequence is one of the best closings in modern cinema. Coppola later admitted that his film, The Conversation, was inspired by Blow Up. And that is, I think, Coppola's best film.

[@gabrielidusogie9189]

Every frame in this film is literally composed like still photos

[@Pandamasque]

And the film's also notable for very casually including not one, but two soon-to-be guitar gods.

[@Garrett1240]

3

[@ReelClassicFilmReviews]

That final scene when he indulges the mine and goes to get the ‘ball’… the expression on his face as he realises he’s involved himself in something that’s not really there, I feel is the clue the ‘murder mystery’ element of the film.., 🤔 Such a great movie 👏

[@josephdurandproductions]

Your interpretation makes sense, except that I feel like the scene where he goes back to the park at night and sees the corpse could have been left out completely, or more clearly been shown to be possibly his imagination.

[@gabrielidusogie9189]

Just finished this film and I am enamored with the way Antonioni shows the iconic aesthetic of 60s London

[@user-kx1rd3hz5k]

The dead body is a manniquin in some reviews. When he hears the sound of the tennis ball he realises he's not a photographer in swinging London but the tramp at the beginning. A circle of imitation unreality closes in the final frame he disappears in to fiction unreality.

[@RockPuncher]

We never hear the gunshot. Where as in Blow Out, all we hear is the gunshot.

[@derekbrou]

First there was Blow Up which features a photographer as the main character, then Brian DePalma remade it as Blow Out which changed it to a sound designer, and now I will remake it again, this time about a chef who discovers a murder plot through taste. It's called Blow Fish. And in 20 years someone can remake it again about an allergist and call it Blow Nose or something. Idk my joke ran it's course miles back

[@tjiddesvensson4658]

DePalma diddent remake it ! He needed windsound and argued with his soundguy just like in the movie and also inspiration from JFK assassination ! Blow up is a SLOW very boring movie ! Blow Out is a masterpice

[@zeltzamer4010]

@@tjiddesvensson4658 What? He remade it. The title “Blowout” is literally an audio-related spin on photography-related “Blowup.”

[@tjiddesvensson4658]

@@zeltzamer4010 No ! He even talks about it a doc about Blow Out , where do you get your facts ?

[@lastunctives2095]

Many a jest ...is true

[@zackerycooper1206]

@@tjiddesvensson4658 What are you talking about? Just do a cursory look into this and you’ll find out that it is a remake

[@Hernal03]

That final scene with the mimes, when the camera focuses on the photographers face as he watches the imaginary tennis game is a moment of frightening self-realization --- if you look carefully, you will see a subtle yet clearly expressed change occur in the lead characters face --- it is when he realizes that he has lost his individuality and given in to the overall illusion that daily tries to entrap us --- the moment where you realize you have become untethered by having joined the many and in the process have lost yourself. A quietly haunting and existentially devastating moment. The only saving grace (some would call it a curse), is that he is actually one of the rare few individuals who recognizes this fact and because he does, he will, from that moment onward, forever be an outsider. To be alone in a crowd as it were.

[@magicknight13]

Love Blow-Up!!! I just got to rewatch it in theaters ☺️☺️

[@klausschneider1045]

The basics of the plot were taken from Julio Cortázar's short story "Las babas del diablo" - which I felt to be still much more unsettling than the "Blow Up" version.

[@AB5997]

I genuinely feel that Blow Up consists of one of the finest movie endings of all time.

[@coltonc7832]

I can't remember the ending of the movie in the slightest. But I thought it was a pretentious and boring film, so.

[@parthjagtap5447]

@@coltonc7832 I agree, just finished it. Maybe I’m too thick to get the “insightful social commentary”. But I really don’t get it lol.

[@bobblue_west]

@@parthjagtap5447 Does there have to be something "to get"? A capture of fabulous London in the 60's.

[@101Volts]

@@parthjagtap5447 (Spoilers ahead, don't click "read more" if you want to avoid it:) ... ... ... All I got is that Thomas the Photographer is a wasteful fool who wastes time looking for thrills, loses his evidence photos once someone breaks in, then he might not be sure whether or not he even took the picture in the first place because he passed out at a friend's party. My point being the old adage, "you 'snooze' you lose." And oh boy, did he "sleep" on it multiple times.

[@Garrett1240]

Just finished. What a waste.

[@Pandamasque]

The film that "inspired" Blow Out by Brian De Palma :)

[@TheDiscardedImage]

One of my all time favourites too. Would like to cover it at some point.

[@James-nl6fu]

A colour film about a picture taken by a film camera photographer. A celebration of the beautiful lost technology of colour and black and white film 🎥 🎞 🎦 🎬 📽 ❤️Heralding today's obsession with the importance of "the image" above everything 😀

[@pantelija7281]

What is the truth? How do we see, hear, or feel it? What is actually true, and who is the judge? Is there only one truth and does the truth exist only in a moment and then slip away as soon as we turn around? An incredible film, with a universal theme, to the extent that Goethe, Dostoevsky, or Shakespeare are universal.

[@JeremyRenner191]

Great video, I love to hear about films that I have never heard of and also really interesting and engaging!

[@minitumen]

I had no idea what to make of the movie when I saw it some time ago, but you made it clearer. Thank you!

[@EpimetheusHistory]

Interesting video. Will definitely put the movie on my to watch list

[@k.t.5405]

is this movie about JFK? Antonioni knew both Jack and Jackie and was even invited to the White House.

[@scottherf]

As Mullis warned about P.C.R. Testing. “You could find anything.”

[@levistubbs8949]

Hemmings was terrific in the movie a la bailey !

[@alxdregomes]

great movie, great video also. well done

[@ElenGlazova]

Love the movie and after this review love it even more. Thanks

[@sandeeproshan5103]

Plato's cave allegory might apply too.

[@evaguggenheim7562]

Your discussion was helpful; I just watched it for my film club; jotted down ‘Allie meets Avedon’-in a way..must think about this one; thank you

[@evaguggenheim7562]

Alfie

[@frederiquecouture3924]

Happy Birthday Vanessa!

[@adarshjose3891]

Keep up the good work 👍👍 ❣️❣️❣️

[@mirjanailic826]

The narrator is so cute in the park :) Thanks for this interpretation of Blow up:)

[@hadyzabibrebolledo1394]

I only like this movie for the ending, the ending is so impactful

[@WayTooClose]

Am I wrong in thinking The Conversation is the auditory version of this movie? Or is it closer to Blow Out?

[@gabrielidusogie9189]

Blow Out is more the direct connection while The Conversation is more of a reaction to the Nixon Era

[@CraftySouthpaw]

BOTH movies were directly inspired by this one.

[@user-fy9fr3bc7v]

Read Cortázar's original story! It's so good.

[@luisbustamante9869]

Cortázar was concerned with perception and reality. Looking at spider gossamers floating in the air he wonders if these are the threads of the Virgin or the dribble of the Devil. He suggests that photographs are capable of revealing what we've missed when looking. The painstaking process of blowing up gradually subverts truth as perceived in the first place. The Devil is in the detail. Cortázar was one of the first authors to look at photography from a post-modern perspective back in 1956.

[@lastunctives2095]

The blur of time fictional and ( real) note . The search for the sign of time of the time and times that makes 3 ( notes)

[@nigelpearson6664]

Few typos, sorry.

[@nigelpearson6664]

The whole point of this film what would you do if Thomas? Would you start to loose your grip? If you didn't was it worth of?

[@user-qi7qx5yr7w]

ISTO!

[@Alexanderbendo]

love this channel BUT is there any real insight here? its like a summary of the movie.

[@clausvergara9702]

This movie is so weird!!

[@32ModB]

Nothing about this film is real. The director even painted grass that didn't look green enough for him. It's a "fantasy" of "swinging London 1965."

[@tf5500]

Blaap

[@JiveDadson]

The plot-hook spawned many copycats.

[@romansoto9644]

Am I the only one that thinks that L'avventura is much more accessible than Blow-Up?

[@TheDiscardedImage]

You could argue this. The characters are more relatable, and it's easier to comprehend their emotional states. But I guess the more wandering nature of the film didn't give audiences the same kind of hook as Blow-Up.

[@k.t.5405]

its about JFK

[@suatustel746]

No it's passenger excels both movies.

[@tonys1587]

I’m with you on this

[@fiddleandfart]

Interesting... but I still find "Blow Up" as fascinating, and weirdly compulsive, as I did as a youngster watching it on release in the cinema in the Sixties. I wanted to BE David Hemmings, and dress as he did in the movie - and move like him. He's very graceful. Plus, I was fascinated by music, art, and fashion in the Sixties, and wanted to be a fashion photographer shooting all those wonderful models. (Got into TV instead, lucky me!) I love "L'Avventura," though, too - above all for the sheer watchability of the stunning Monica Vitti!

[@TheWhitehiker]

The commentator seems to confuse artistic distance with the denial of social issues and 'worker' rights; no thumbs up.

[@pedroparamo7351]

4:18 "However, it doesn't feel entirely concrete", well, the hand holding the gun feels quite concrete. There's no way denying this. Was there a murder? Who knows? Was it a failed murder attempt? Dunno. This movie is a bit like "L'Avventura"; Anna's dissapearance ends up in nothing, here the murder mystery...the same. What was Mike trying to say?