I watched Godard's Alphaville last night, and during the movie [which was interesting enough] I couldn't help but compare apples and oranges, Godard and Bergman. For my money Bergman was much much better. I've not seen anything by Antonioni, but L'Avventura is on the Criterion list, so I'll put a call in for it to my library.

i had a copy of the zabriskie point soundtrack album for years (no self-respecting pink floyd fan would be caught without one, ya know) before actually seeing the film, and owning the soundtrack didn't prepare me for how howlingly and mind-numbingly bad that movie was. it's like carlo ponti told him to make a movie that "american kids would dig" and he ended up doing something that pandered to a counterculture that was pretty much dead by the time the film came out. bleah. hated it.

but that was just a minor blip in an otherwise fascinating and mostly excellent filmography. i've liked everything else i've ever seen by him, especially blowup, the passenger, and l'avventura. excellent stuff.

i guess bertolucci is one of the last of that particular style of italian modernist filmmaking, then...

Isn't it funny that the deaths that seem like big newsworthy losses tend to come in bundles? I'm sure it's confirmation bias, but it always seems that way.

I must admit I didn't know Bergman was still alive. That surprised me.

Sad. I actually saw Antonioni himself at an Antonioni film festival in... Venice, I think? Maybe Padua. It looked like he was 80-something and there with his gorgeous 30-year-old-looking wife, and we all watched L'eclisse together, which has one of my favorite cinematic moments in it: Monica Vitti is walking away in a humph from Alain Delon, and we watch her from the back (my god, that woman had the best walk ever) as if from his point of view, then she turns around to tell him to stop following her, but he's not there, and as a viewer you're left with this weird impression that instead of watching her through his eyes, you were just watching her imagining what she looked like through his eyes, and it's such a wonderful little throwaway thing.

That should probably have been "walking away in a huff," but "walking away in a humph" is probably closer to the truth.

This has been a very sad couple of days. Bergman and now Antonioni and people disappearing from the Internets.

Italian cinema has produced some of the most amazing film languages, cultures and traditions. Antonioni is a big part of that tradition. I find it oddly hard to use "was" just yet. I hate that my kids are too young to be able to explain to them now how important he was. And by the time they are old enough I am afraid the disconnect will be greater. The love affair and La notte as well as L'Avventura are the first ones that come to mind. Movies I used to watch in a summer, open-air movie theater in Greece. Ay, fuck this shit, already.

occhiblu, you've made me really want to see L'eclisse, now!

Miko, I had the same reaction. Indeed, I said something like "Ooooh. Ingmar Bergman died... which means he was still alive."

My cinephile partner reminded me that, duh, IB filmed Saraband in 2003 --- hard to do when you're dead.

But the news of Antonioni's death so close on Bergman's heels sent me rushing to on Andrei Tartofsky's health.

I was oddly relieved to learn that he won't die this week.

No, he died in 1986. Phew!

Bergman being alive wasn't a surprise to me - you could hardly escape the man in these parts, but he hasn't been working, or doing radio-shows or many TV appearances recently so ... Well yeah I guess we all knew he was gonna go.

I'm pulling out BlowUp and Hets (Bergman script) from my video-library tonight and forcing my Danish beau to watch it. Revenge for all that Danish dogma he made me sit through ;) (and I think I might have to fill in some details on that wiki-link...)

(for those who have already seen all Bergman films, I recommend watching Alf Sjöberg's Hets)

Blow-Up is great, and dated in all the best ways. Even the DePalma remake, Blow-Out (w/ Travolta), is well worth seeing.

As for Bergman, I think comparing him with Godard directly is odd. Fellini, yes, but Godard? Wholly different approaches.

For those who haven't, these Bergman tributes are a must.

BP, I love L'eclisse. Monica Vitti is... well, Monica Vitti, and Alain Delon is gorgeous (though dubbed), and this probably matters less now but it was the first film in which I realized how much of the story Antonioni tells visually -- it had no subtitles, my Italian still wasn't great, but there was so little dialogue (and the dialogue that was there was so simple) that I understood every word that was spoken.

La Notte is my favorite Antonioni film (and one of my favorite films of all time), but L'eclisse is definitely worth seeing.

Er, on preview: It matters less now because I don't have to try to track down movies that I will be able to understand even without English subtitles.

:)

I agree with you occhiblu, La Notte is my favorite Antonioni film as a whole, although scenes from other films are quite impressive -as in "impress a picture in my head". And I like this film more and more as I grow older. Moreau is heartbreaking but sublime in that film, I dare say superior to Vitti's persona --but maybe I'm biased.

Oh, I completely agree. And I think Vitti is better in the other films. But I love the contrast between the two women in La Notte, and how there's both competition and compassion, and alliance and isolation, between them.

Also, it's truly impossible to beat Marcello Mastroianni.

the Godard comparison comes from the fact that Godard homaged the summer with Monica when he did breathless.. Recall that scene in the end where Monica just stares to the camera? Godard did:

One must see Summer With Monika, if only for the extraordinary moment when Harriet Andersson, before making love with the man she has already thrown out once before, stares fixedly into the camera, her laughing eyes clouded with confusion, and calls on us to witness her disgust at involuntarily choosing hell instead of heaven. It is the saddest shot in the history of the cinema."
— Jean-Luc Godard

Exactly, occhi! Vitti is the key figure in L'Avventura for example. In La Notte she is the vixen, but her character does not have the depth of Moreau, intentionally of course, since she is not the protagonist. I really need to find Blow Up/Out, which I have not seen yet, actually.

As far as Mastroyanni goes, that's where my agreement with you ends, dear! Fellini is the one who developed MM's persona and everyone else, Antonioni included, has simply re-used that persona. He is charming and adorable, a little vulnerable too. That's nice, but despite his awesomeness, he is not the "quintessential male" (well, not for me) if there is such a thing, really. For that I'd look toward Humphrey or Brando.

My Brando beats your Mastroyanni anytime! hehe! :)
oh, god, I am so silly.

Ha! I agree that Bogart, or possibly Carey Grant, would be closer to the quintessential perfect male... I think I like Mastroianni because he's imperfect. There'd be no way in hell I'd want him for myself, but I'm glad he's out there. :-)

(Also, I think I was thinking of Marcello vs. Alain Delon, and while Delon is pretty, he's just not Marcello. Also also, La dolce vita is one of my other favorite films, and I did almost say above that I liked Marcello better in that, so I'm happy to put him in with Fellini and that whole rabble. Also also also, I was so used to older Brando that I really didn't get it, then I recently saw Streetcar, and oh my dear god was that man perfect. I don't think I've ever seen such vulnerability and strength together.)