22 Things from the Film Blow-Up

Blow-up is a 1966 film by director Michelangelo Antonioni.

The mimes are the loudest thing in the movie.

In contrast the anti-war/anti-nuke protesters are relatively quite.

The scene with the photographer (Thomas) and the painter sets up the motivation of the film’s protagonist.

Vanessa Redgrave does a perfect job of dancing poorly to jazz trying to impress the photographer.

Herbie Hancock created the score and music of the film.

I didn’t know the trope of homosexuals as a sign of urban gentrification is as old as it is.

The antique shop owner is tired of antiques and wants to run away to Nepal and Morocco, but is told Nepal is nothing but antiques. All the while new London is being built around her shop and about to take it over. So there’s no reason to run from antiques as they are about to be replaced.

In the club the crowd watches the band silently and still as if looking at a piece of art rather than listening to music. They only erupt when they fight over a piece of guitarists guitar, the music being less important than the trophy of being there. Like a selfie?

A doss house is a flop house or a homeless shelter. This is where the photographer is leaving at the beginning of the film.

At first the photographer thinks the photos of lovers in the park will be a nice contrast for his book that is full of “violent” images. But he’s not satisfied with that vision and searches and finds a darker story.

CB radios are used as a primitive car phone for contacting a service to convey a messages to others through an operator.

I don’t think there was a murder. The people who steal the photos only take the photos of the lovers and not the one of the “body”. Why? They are only threatened by the exposure of the relationship.

The photographer is an opportunist. He see’s the couple and wants to capture them on film. He sees the antique shop as an investment that will return financially. When he sees the body he wants the photo because he sees that value.

Photography as an art form kind of takes a beating. Even though it is literally a representation of the real, it some how becomes an art form that’s so easy to hide the real and create fantasy.

The mimes at the end represent the photographer’s world of fantasy and he relates to that.

The photographer only shows joy when he discovers the lovers in the park.

The photographer refers to women he photographs as “birds” and leaves them to go to the park and photograph birds.

The opening shot is of the same empty field from the end of the film where the photographer disappears.

Literally in the opening credits, images of a fashion photo shoot appear in the letters. Establishing the world of the film.

The “The End” credit the letters are black. Nothing more to see?

In the mimed tennis scene the camera follows the mime tennis ball as it goes over the fence and roles across the ground and comes to a stop.

The photographer retrieves the ball from that location which is a good bit away from the tennis court. This demonstrates his immersion into the mimed tennis scene and his acceptance of the reality of the scene.