Antonini's Blow-Up released to DVD tomorrow, Feb. 17th

[poweragemk]

Rumours of a Yardbirds reunion were sadly unfounded, though...:D

But seriously, what a fantastic and influential movie. Blew me away when I first saw it a few years back. Can't wait to pick it up tomorrow. :thumbsup:

[lbangs]

Well, there goes more of my money. I saw this one in ninth grade, and it floored me.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

[poweragemk]

9th grade, huh? Sneak in? :laugh:

[Paul C.]

Great film. Hat's off to David Hemmings, may he rest in peace!

[John Moschella]

Well, this one should be in my mailbox today, but I think I'll save it until the weekend. Word is that the PQ is good but the sound is mono which is very disappointing. It would have been nice to have some surround action during the park scene. I've managed to see this about three times through the years in theaters. A great film with so many memorable scenes.

[chaz]

A classic movie from the 1960's. And that Yardbirds scene :righton: .
I have had this on laserdisc for years and I will be running down to A&B any minute now to pick up the dvd. :goodie:

[Ken_McAlinden]

Well, this one should be in my mailbox today, but I think I'll save it until the weekend. Word is that the PQ is good but the sound is mono which is very disappointing. It would have been nice to have some surround action during the park scene. I've managed to see this about three times through the years in theaters. A great film with so many memorable scenes.
...but but but

The sound has always been mono, and, more importantly, saying the PQ is good but the sound is mono implies that mono is somehow the opposite of good. Nooooo! ;) If you must exercise more than one speaker, there is a music only track that is reportedly in stereo. :thumbsup:

Anyhoo, I picked it up at Borders and will probably give it a spin tomorrow.

Regards,

[JohnnyK]

MY, how times have changed. When this movie was first released in the 1960's, it was given an "X" rating which is similar to an "R" in the current rating system. I think it got the "X" rating because of the scene where David is chasing the young naked girls around his studio after they smoked a joint.

[mrstats]

Cool. I saw the film back in the 60s; I want to see it again.

[Ken_McAlinden]

At the time of the film's original release, a lot of the controversy centered around whether or not there was below the waist frontal nudity. For the record, there was a second or two of it from the brunette in the scene JohnnyK mentioned, but at the time, folks who could not review it frame by frame had different opinions. This was a couple of years before the MPAA ratings system was in place in anything like its current form.

The DVD has a nice film-like transfer. For the record, the stereo music-only track contains just the score, so you don't get any isolated stereo Yardbirds.

Regards,

[poweragemk]

Yeah, I thought the film looked MUCH better than I expected - and better than the 16mm print that got screened at my school a few years back. The Yardbirds do just fine in mono; the train does indeed, keep-a-rollin'. :thumbsup:

[Ed Bishop]

The Yardbirds' "Stoll On" has always been mono everyhwere...

Me, I'm curious about the sound of the trees, leaves, everything but voices and music.....what I always remember about BLOW - UP is how wonderfuly detached it all was...is...and of course, that Verve label with Herbie Hancock's music playing..

Hancock...Hitchcock...Antonioni.....make s sense, this one time...


ED :ed:

[120dB]

Anybody who has the DVD already: Is it letterboxed
or pan-and-scan? Also, are the theatrical trailer or
any other interesting extras included?

Anybody ever read John Fahey's book where he
recounts his trip to Italy to work on the music
for "Zabriskie Point"? He wound up getting into
a fistfight with Antononi because the director got
into some heavy "America-bashing" over drinks.
Hint as to the outcome:
American folk-blues guitarslinger = 1
Italian Commie filmmaker = 0

[Ken_McAlinden]

The DVD is letterboxed and enhanced for 16:9 televisions. Extras include the isolated score in stereo, one teaser and one full-length trailer, and a full-length audio commentary by Peter Brunette (author of "The Films of Michelangelo Antonioni") I have not listened to the commentary yet. The trailers are interesting mod artifacts that really play up the sexual aspects of the film, but I don't think that controversy has ever been used in film marketing since then.

Regards,

[Ed Bishop]

I've just listened to the commentary, and can't say I was impressed....some good points were made, but, IMO, not nearly enough of them, and he seemed to miss the Hitchcockian aspect of the film entirely, or if he did mention it, it went right by me....


The letterboxing is about the same as the Criterion laserdisc...which is to say, it's wider than the full-frame, but some of the bottom of the image is cropped...this is one of those times I wish both the LB and pan/scan versions had been included just for comparison's sake.

The sound is indeed mono, but an interesting thing: this time--unlike the Criterion version--the intro and end score pieces are the same as the film I saw around 1970. Which is to say, you get the correct introductory piece, not the Criterion one, which had a portion of the Hancock 'end titles' piece edited onto the original opening music. As for the 'end titles,' for some reason, that never seems to turn up in the movie itself where it belongs, only on the M-G-M soundtrack Lp.

I agree, the image looks very good. A much deeper analysis of this film and Antonioni's work in general would have been welcome, but of course this is not a 'special edition,' so we don't get that. But I'm glad the soundtrack was not futzed with, there's too much of that going on already....


ED :ed:

[Paul C.]

Thanks for the informative review Ed, et al. Sounds like a winner.

I am curious - has anyone picked up "Death in Venice" yet? I believe that was released just recently.