return to worldwidereview.com, the home of critical reviews

Re: Michelangelo Antonioni is dead

From:     blp
Category: Art
Date:     02 August 2007
Time:     08:24 AM

Review:

Antonioni's harder to get a handle on than Bergman. He made films in English. His style changed
drastically from film to film. His last film, which was bad, was completed by Wim Wenders because he
was ill. 

I think they're both a tiny bit overrated. At their worst, they slide into unintentional bathos: see
the split screen portrait of Bibi Andersen and Live Ullman in Persona or the silly mimes in Blow Up.
There aren't that many films I'd recommend unreservedly by either, but from Bergman I'd go for The
Silence, Hour of the Wolf and Scenes from a Marriage and from Antonioni, La Notte, L'Avventura and,
especially, Il Deserto Rosso. Bergman's early Smiles of a Summer Night is fun too. 


return to worldwidereview.com, the home of critical reviews