Blow-Up (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

The first thing I did was compare the new Criterion blu-ray of Blow-Up with the Warners DVD. To be fair, the older DVD has always looked good, but the blu-ray, made from a 4K scan, is better for detail and most impressive in vibrancy of color. Color is an essential component of this film and we see it to great advantage now. The uncompressed soundtrack is a joy to hear, particularly for the quiet scenes in the park.The Criterion blu-ray is a must-have for fans of Blow-Up when it comes to supplements. The older DVD has a commentary that was a huge letdown at the time of its release and a new one would have been more than welcome. Even more than one commentary, approaching the film from different vantage points would have been nice. But we can't complain when the the other supplements are this good. Two short extras-- one about photography/cinematography and the other about Antonioni and modernism are interesting, the latter in particular. There are actor interviews as well. A short one with Jane Birkin, two with David Hemmings and one with Vanessa Redgrave. The second one with Hemmings (from 1977) is very informative about the actor, while the Redgrave interview, lasting 45 min, is fascinating with her observations about Antonioni, film making, and Blow-Up itself. There is also a longer documentary about the making of the film and it's something that can be watched over and over, like Blow-Up itself. The film's original trailer and teaser are included and they show how the film was marketed as something other than what it really is. A winner all around.

This is a really good film but you must keep it in its proper context. The protagonist is a successful fashion photographer who hates his job. He is sick and tired of the phoniness to this business that he has taken to photographing the real side of life and is putting a book of pictures together with his publisher. He decides that the book has grown a bit dreary and needs a more cheerful line of pictures and notifies the publisher that he may have found them. He photographed a couple in the park deeply in love. Even in the 'real' world it's found. Or is it? From the moment she spots the photographer, photographing them, she is determined to obtain the film. All her efforts fail and only convince him that he missed something. So he examines the pictures on the film more closely until he notices something. What is she looking at? After he has run through another series of photos he spots a hand holding a gun from the bushes. At first he assumes that he photographed an attempted murder and excitedly calls his publisher about a new ending for the book. It's apparent that he's far more interested in the photos for his own end. But when he completes the examination of the film he spots the image of something that could be a body but he can never know for sure unless he returns to the site in the park where it might be. When he finds it he immediately recognizes the man with the woman that morning. When he returns to his studio it's been ransacked and all the pictures gone. Who will ever believe him without them? Much has been made about the pantomime tennis match towards the end of the film. A party of revelers that he meets earlier in the film, stops for a tennis game at an outdoor court but the pantomime game is interrupted when the ball is sent sailing out of the court in the direction of the photographer. The players plead for his assistance which he provides when he throws the ball back. In the end he would rather be a part of their phony world than the real world that he has experienced over the past day. Maybe it wasn't so awful as he thought. Blow-Up isn't a detective film by any stretch of the imagination. Good versus evil isn't found in this film. Heroes are also missing. It strikes me far more as a film of discovery and escape from a world that he wants no part of. It's certainly a pensive film and Antonioni's cinematography was terrific. It's not heavy on dialogue. Maybe that's why it commands our attention. We must look and draw our own conclusions.

After years of obscurity and neglect, "Blow Up" has finally reemerged in pristine condition: thank you, thank you, thank you, Criterion. It's been a long time coming but it was worth the wait.Criterion's restored version of "Blow Up" is everything a fan could ask for, and there is no bigger fan than me.Mercifully, it seems to be complete and intact; my first wish fulfilled.Also, the color rendition and the clarity are top notch, there is little if anything to criticize, I doubt Antonioni would have much to complain about.I do have some minor qualms, I don't like the cover art and I didn't find some of the supplemental material very interesting. Criterion might consider adding a brief bio of the major directors like Antonioni.Buy the blu-ray version, do your eyes a favor.

I'll start off by saying that Hollywood would never allow a director to take a full hour to set up his story. Antonioni gets away with it in Blow-Up because of who he is. We finally get to the scene in the park where the photog takes his famous snaps one hour into the movie, after which the camera becomes a character in the story alongside the human characters. Personifying technology is supposed to be a new idea but it's not. The movie camera is a character in "Citizen Kane" and other movies. "Metropolis" predates Blow-Up by decades. Anyhow, there is a big hole in the plot [spoiler alert], which is that the photog fails to take his camera with him when he goes back to the park to confirm his suspicion that there's a dead body there. He comes back to the studio and finds that all his evidence is gone, stolen by the woman and/or her boyfriend. This lets Antonioni mess around with the idea that reality is an illusion (blah blah), to be is to be (in this case) photographed and all that high school philosophy stuff. The mimes play phantom tennis as the movie ends. Yeah, deep ... NOT! But hey, it's a cute period peace if you want to reminisce about the 60s, at least Atonioni's view. The scene where the two girls and the photog wrestle on the floor is hot. Hemmings evidently had a good time making the movie and it made him rich and famous. I saw him last in "Gladiator." He weighed something like 250 pounds so it didn't surprise me to learn he died of a heart attack.

Sometimes a stranger sees a country more clearly than its inhabitants, and I feel this is the case with Antonioni’s film. As someone who was there, it seems to me to capture the essence of England in 1966 better than any other, apart from Yellow Submarine. The director approached this country rather like an anthropologist making contact with a strange tribe, to the extent that, in order to give an accurate impression of the central character, the photographer, played by David Hemmings, he asked several real photographers to fill in a questionnaire.The other aspect of the film that seems to have been influenced by this attitude is the photography of exteriors, particularly the park which plays a major role in the film. In contrast to other directors, who tend to stop filming when the sun disappears, Antonioni only filmed when there when it was cloudy, managing to achieve a uniform appearance, even over several days shooting. The absence of any distraction gives these scenes a particular, almost hypnotic, intensity.A feature of this period that he captures better than other films is the existence of two Englands, side by side. The opening scene where Hemmings leaves a doss-house, and later one in a shop, with its unhelpful assistant, contrast with the interiors in the studio, and the later drug fuelled party and concert with the Yardbirds.The plot centres around Hemmings visits to a park, where he notices a young woman and an older man embracing. It is only when he processes the films he shot there, that he notices what seems to be someone lurking in some bushes. When he enlarges some of these shots (the blow ups of the title) he realises the figure seems to be holding a gun.The girl in the park, played by Vanessa Redgrave, arrives at the studio, and asks him to give her the film, so he fobs her off with another cassette. He then makes even more detailed enlargements resulting in a shocking discovery. Being Antonioni, the director avoids a neat resolution, and the film ends with an apparently irrelevant scene in the park, as a sort of cinematic shaggy dog story.Apart from Sarah Miles, as the wife of his artist neighbour, played by John Castle, Peter Bowles, as his publisher, Verushka as a model and Jane Birkin as a would be one, none of the others who appear are well known. The other models were real life models and one of them, Jill Kennington, talks about her experiences in making the film in the best extra, a feature originally made for Sky.Another fascinating contribution to this is from Piers Haggard. He is listed in the credits as dialogue assistant, but apparently acted as an essential link between the director, and the cast and crew. He was able to communicate in French which fortunately both knew. The director provided the story, and in collaboration with Tonino Guerra the screenplay, but dialogue was contributed by the playwright Edward Bond.The park that plays a central role in the film (Maryon Park in Charlton, South East London) was suggested to Antonioni by the art director, Assheton Gorton and looks much the same now as it did then. The only changes made for the film were the addition of fencing, and a specially made neon sign to provide lighting for the night scene. Don McCullin, one of the photographers on whom the David Hemmings character was based, provided the photos Hemmings was seen showing to Peter Bowles and the blow ups that play a crucial part in the story.As to be expected from Criterion there is a newly restored transfer from 4k master, and many extras, plus a book with accounts of the films shooting, the questionnaire for photographers, and the short story on which the film is loosely based.

I found the remastering and accompanying booklet to be one of the most breathtaking I had experienced. The definition, colour balance,and the neutral colour on the grey-scale in the Studio scenes, together with the compulsive Darkroom detailing in the prints to make this version one to treasure. I am including this in a new book that I am writing. It makes the higher price for this version worth every penny - it makes the impact greater than my memories of the original film when first shown in the cinema in David Hemmings prime

criterion .....honestly ..... we here in region A are SOOOOOO LUCKY to have a great company like criterion curating all these incredible works of world cinema ......when i was in film school we were still screening crappy 16mm prints in our lectures ...... but on the other hand all the rep theatres in town would actually play bergman tarvoksky herzog fellini .......anyway, this is the best print of 'blow up' that i've personally ever seen. the blu-ray projects well too ....... i watched on a 100" screen. marvellous.

Although David Hemmings seems to overplay his part this movie is very nicely fashioned and well worth seeing again after so many years since it was new.

Muy buena película