Blow-up (film)
"Blow-up" is a 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni that delves into the cultural landscape of 1960s London through the life of a trendy photographer named Thomas, portrayed by David Hemmings. The narrative begins with Thomas appearing in control as he navigates his glamorous profession, photographing fashion models and engaging in the city's vibrant social scene. However, a shift occurs when he captures a couple in a secluded park; after the man mysteriously vanishes, the woman, played by Vanessa Redgrave, pleads for the film, hinting at deeper issues beneath the surface of his seemingly superficial existence.
As Thomas develops the photographs, he uncovers a murder, which starkly contrasts with the self-indulgence prevalent in his life and the wider society. The film critiques the apolitical nature of London during this era, showcasing how social problems and political protests are often overshadowed by a commitment to aestheticism and hedonism. Through its exploration of themes such as sexual liberation and narcissism, "Blow-up" presents a portrait of a society focused on surface-level pleasures while neglecting the darker realities that lie beneath. The film is often regarded as a significant commentary on the cultural decadence of the time.
Blow-up (film)
Released 1966
Director Michelangelo Antonioni
A film that embodied for American audiences the allure of swinging London in the early 1960’s. In the film, director Antonioni uses the pop culture figure of the fashion photographer to explore the particular combination of glamour and emptiness in London at the start of the Beatles era.
Key Figures
Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007), film director
The Work
The film Blow-up explores the contradictions of 1960’s London by showing fragments of the daily life of a trendy photographer named Thomas (David Hemmings). Thomas is shown leaving a homeless shelter after a night of surreptitious shooting for an art book, engaging model Verushka in a steamy glamour shoot, and barking orders to both studio staff and models for a fashion spread. He seems totally in control of his life, but this changes when he photographs a couple he has followed into a secluded park. Before this sequence is over, the man has disappeared from sight and the woman (Mary, played by Vanessa Redgrave) is desperately trying to get the photographer’s film. Later, at Thomas’s studio, Mary again tries to get the film. In this scene, the decade’s spirit of liberated sexuality is prominent. In the end, the photographer keeps the film and, intrigued, begins to print and enlarge (blow up) the negatives. In the grainy images, he finds a man aiming a pistol and then the corpse of Mary’s companion. Beneath the placid surface of the park, Thomas has found murder. However, two would-be models and a posh drug party distract him from the mystery, and the theft of his photographs leaves him with nothing. At the end, Thomas is lured into a fantasy tennis game by some clowning mimes. A long, high-angle shot traps him in the realization of his own futility.
Impact
Blow-up treated a variety of 1960’s themes in a manner that mirrored and communicated the cultural decadence of London in the 1960’s. In the London of the film, social problems are subordinate to trendy aestheticism. Therefore, for Thomas, the homeless men he photographs are merely pretexts for art. Likewise, the nuclear-arms protesters are presented as listless and ineffective. The apoliticism director Michelangelo Antonioni sees in London contrasts with the politically charged atmosphere of American culture during the era.
The sexual liberation of the 1960’s is also very much in display in Blow-up. Virtually all the women wear the revealing fashions of the era. Antonioni includes a long scene in which Redgrave is partially nude and an orgy sequence in which Thomas has sex with two teenage fashion groupies. Intermingled with sexual scenes are two extended drug-taking sequences, a further elaboration on the hedonism of swinging London.
Ultimately, London in the 1960’s is presented as a self-indulgent society whose citizens skate across the surface of a life of flattering glamour, ignoring the harsh realities that lurk below the surface. Thomas’s predicament with his photographs is a critique of his shallow use of his art and the myopic narcissism of 1960’s mod culture.
Related Work
The 1981 film Blow Out, directed by Brian De Palma and starring John Travolta and Nancy Allen, follows a similar story line.
Additional Information
Seymour Chatman’s Antonioni or the Surface of the World (1985) contains an excellent study of Blow-up.