Movie Club discussion thread

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

The Movie of the moment is: Blow Up

Links to film:

Eh, I'd still like people to wait until they're done watching it. You can start discussing now if you like. I finally have it uploaded, so no excuse not to:

*Link deleted at moderator request - will do this for movies that are not new.

Please do not discuss without watching.
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Ok, the option to rewatch Blow up if it's in your library, or seek it by other means than my upload is available(my upload is not available until it's done downloading, and I can see if the file works ok), and you may start discussion.

However, be forewarned, this thread will contain spoilers, so don't read, if you didn't watch. Also, If you have seen it before, please rewatch it(if you haven't already). Speaking from distant foggy memory does little for the club's purpose.

I personally will not check this thread until I've seen the movie myself, so if I don't respond immediately to questions/concerns, that is why.

[Arya Stark]

Ohh that's a good idea. But we do have spoiler tags. No good?

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

Finally watched, was an interesting film. A lot of complaints about the datedness, but I think it works to it's advantage. Really captures a cultural era which is well documented, but it's nice to see at the time what they saw of themselves.

It's a very non-narrative film, which works. Just sort of a continuation, and cliffhanger. Don't feel it's a bad way to end it. Feel it was a tad slow starting up, and not the best character-driven noir I've ever seen, but definitely a decent start to our little film club discussion.

Plus, I really liked the mimes at the beginning. Awesome way to open a film.

[NumberNineDream]

What did you think about the ending scene?
Cz that's maybe one of my favourite Antonioni endings (though they're ALL epic imo).

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

Really liked it. Sort of gave the non-conclusive feelings that I think he was gunning for.

[NumberNineDream]

I feel it works as an independent short film.

We can feel the character's detachment from the world in these few minutes. The moment he tried to believe the delusion, and then him forsaking the scene a second after that, sums the whole film in a way.

And somehow the crime was never a big part of the movie. It's just something the character stumbled onto .

[dankrsta]

This is the second time I've seen this film and I must say it's even better than I thought it was. This is the film I'd like to see more times. Not only is it visually rewarding, like all Antonioni films I've seen (not that many ), but it just invites you to see something more with each viewing. That's what it looks like to me.

This film is all about illusions, from the fashion world this photographer lives in to the way he sees the world, through camera. It's all perfectly summed up in the scene with pantomime artists, towards the end. The potential murder story, the only thing that vaguely resembles a plot, reveals this especially. The photographer only watches the man and the woman in the park through his camera, he sees them as sequence of frames that he needs to later connect into a story. Like filmmaker, like Antonioni himself . It was a love story at first and a story about adultery. But, when he starts blowing up his photos, he sees something (or maybe not) and it becomes a murder mystery. Very cinematic.

What is also interesting is that throughout the film he was somewhat disillusioned with the fancy, hip world he lives in. He wanted something real. We see him searching for that in the beginning in the factory and later with the woman from the park. She seems more real to him than all those beautiful model girls he's surrounded with. But, the thing is, he was playing dress up in the factory, he once again "experiences" the hard every day life through camera, it looks tragically romantic. Like the heroine of his mysterious murder story. And when he searched for the body in the park, I felt he was disappointed it wasn't there. That's the reality, the illusion is more interesting.

So he wants reality, but at the same time doesn't know how to see it with bare eyes. Is it even there? Does it exist? Is everything only a point of view? The ending with pantomime artists playing tennis with non existent ball brings this questions to the surface. And when he picks up that ball and throws it back, that says to me that he finally embraces illusion as his only reality (that's when he and we actually hear the ball and the rackets).

The favorite line of the film: "I thought you were in Paris" "I am"

Great film, works on many levels.

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

That's a very good summation of the film. The Paris line too, elicited a chuckle from myself. I think there's a lot to be said about the whole casual nature of how things progress. No matter what happens it seems the main character never is particularly shocked or surprised. He just calmly carries on.

One other thing I noticed about this film, and it's something you see a lot in earlier films like in the 60s where it seems like a lot of the dramatic technique from playhouse, is a lot of scenes where the characters relationship with the environment factors into the storytelling.

Take for instance the scene where the main character has just taken the photos in the park, has the film, and invites the woman in the photos to arrive to pick up the film. That scene itself works in many stages, events, and motions where the characters are seen fully manipulating the environment in his apartment throughout. A very slow boil psychological progression in character interaction.

Some may see this is as dragging on, but I think it's a tad refreshing to see in the modern world of "15 scenes in 10 minutes".

[Sansa Stark]

I fell asleep during it but my boyfriend stayed up watching it

He said I didn't miss anything and that it was really boring


Basically his summation was thus:

"The guy,showed these people a bunch of pictures, and he blew them up and he said to them 'CAN YOU SEE THE BODY' and no one saw the body I guess. Then he did a lot of pacing, it sucked. Nothing really happened"

[djchameleon]

Originally Posted by Plum

I fell asleep during it but my boyfriend stayed up watching it

He said I didn't miss anything and that it was really boring


Basically his summation was thus:

"The guy,showed these people a bunch of pictures, and he blew them up and he said to them 'CAN YOU SEE THE BODY' and no one saw the body I guess. Then he did a lot of pacing, it sucked. Nothing really happened"

this is the same boyfriend that loves watching wrestling a male soap opera?

tbh, this movie was about as painful as pulling teeth but it's my first viewing of it. I felt like it dragged on a bit in certain parts. I seemed to pick up near the end and tended to symbolize more through certain scenes. For instance, I'm still trying to figure out what the director was trying to show by having him go to a gig where the people aren't dancing much except for two people at the back of the room.

Also, I noticed that he was going against the grain, he was going to the back of the room and fighting to get to the back through all the rigid stiff people. I'm pretty sure there was some significance to that scene but I haven't figured it out yet. When I saw the mimes in the ending scene it finally clicked a bit. i didn't understand why they were there at the beginning of the movie but I guess they were there to show that being in his world as a photographer it is better off to use his imagination and let reality take a back seat.

At the end of the movie he finally comes to the realization that what happens in his imagination is much more better and interesting than the real world could ever offer. He accepts this realization by throwing back the ball to the mimes.

I'm pretty sure upon future viewings I will see more that I missed out this time around.