Michelangelo Antonioni

Michelangelo Antonioni was regarded as one of the most outstanding Italian film directors of his generation. His films, which deal in highly personal terms with themes of alienation, boredom, loveless eroticism, and human failure to communicate, include Cronaca di un Amore (1950; Story of a Love Affair), L'Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961; The Night), L'Eclisse (1962; The Eclipse), Deserto Rosso (1964; Red Desert), Blow-Up (1966), and Zabriskie Point (1969). Antonioni was known—especially in his work of the early 1960s—for a unique cinematographic style that often employs lengthy tracking shots that transfix human figures against a barren natural landscape or a scene of urban sterility, or that otherwise emphasize human isolation. The narrative line is so vague and mysterious that his films sometimes seem virtually plotless, using characters more as visual objects or symbols than as real people.

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Antonioni, Michelangelo; New Wave (cinema); Neo-Realism; Italian Cinema

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