"Filming for me is living": Michaelangelo Antonioni 1912-2007

by Simon Hilton on Wed 01 Aug 2007


“My subjects are, in a very general sense, autobiographical. The story is first built through discussions with a collaborator. In the case of “L’Eclisse,” the discussions went on for four months. The writing was then done, by myself, taking perhaps fifteen days. My scripts are not formal screenplays, but rather dialogue for the actors and a series of notes to the director. When shooting begins, there is invariably a great amount of changing. When I go on the set of a scene, I insist on remaining alone for at least twenty minutes. I have no preconceived ideas of how the scene should be done, but wait instead for the ideas to come that will tell me how to begin.”


Blow-Up: David Hemmings & Jane Birkin


Blow Up: Yardbirds scene with Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page


Zabriskie Point: end sequence (music by Pink Floyd)


The Passenger: End Sequence with Jack Nicholson

“In the empty, silent spaces of the world, he has found metaphors that illuminate the silent places our hearts, and found in them, too, a strange and terrible beauty: austere, elegant, enigmatic, haunting.”
Jack Nicholson presenting Antonioni with Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, 1995.


L’Eclisse


Q: “In a world without film, what would you have made?”
Antonioni: “Film.”

Comments

Related posts:

  1. Laszlo Kovacs ASC, 1933-2007
  2. Mr Blue Sky is living here today
  3. Gibson Guitar Town London 2007
  4. Living In A Box
  5. British CD sales drop 10% in 2007

Previous post:

Next post: