Authorship and Cinema: Michelangelo Antonioni

In 1995, Antonioni received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement and also released his last feature film, culminating a fifty-year career as a filmmaker. He managed to achieve popular appeal (his name appears in the lyrics of the seminal musical of the 1960s, Hair), critical accolades (major prizes at every major film festival) and initial scorn for his innovations in narrative form and visual style. Our focus will be on his major films (Il grido, L’avventura, L’eclisse, La notte, Red Desert, Blow Up, Zabriskie Point, and The Passenger), but we will also examine his writings and paintings. In addition, by way of comparison, we will study several films by his contemporary, Federico Fellini. (FMMC 0101 or FMMC 0102 or approval of the instructor) 3 hrs. lect./disc./3 hrs. screen.