The Journal of Blow Up, Movie Review Example

How would you describe the color palette of the film? What are the dominant colors?

Director Michelangelo Antonioni uses a wide range of colors throughout the film, and primary colors dominate in many scenes.  Reflecting the bold clothing styles of the 1960s and the London environment, yellows, greens, and reds “pop out” at the audience.  Antonioni also relies on vivid primary colors elsewhere, as in the deep greens of the park scenes and the striking reds and whites of the city buildings.  At the same time, indoor scenes are “muted.”  There is color in hair, skin tone, and clothing, but a kind of shadow dims the vividness.  This is then a palette varied in both color and intensity, as lighting is used to subdue the colors.

What are the principal locations utilized in the film?

The film essentially uses all of London as its main setting, and all of the action takes place in different areas and buildings of the city.  A significant location within this is the vast park where the hero first photographs Jane; the openness of this space contrasts strongly with the internal studio and nightclub settings, which are claustrophobic in comparison.  Primarily, however, the photography studio and the park dominate, even as the city streets provide important locations going to confusion and hurry.

How do you feel about the photographer and supporting characters in the film? Notice that while he is named in the short story that served as the inspiration for the film, Antonioni purposely does not name him in the film.

In a sense, my impression is that the photographer is as much a secondary character as the others, even as he drives the story and commands most of the screen time.  Put another way, the anonymous nature of him, as well as his work itself, go to reinforcing that he is not in control of what is occurring.  He directs action but only in minor ways, as with his models.  In the larger world, he is at the mercy of everything and everyone around him.  This is also true of the supporting characters; there is a feeling of victim about them, as though they are all caught up in events beyond themselves.  They have a quality of secrecy and mystery, however, the photographer does not.   This is evident, for example, in the scene with him and the two young girls who are there for sex, but are more after modeling for him.  No one, and particularly Jane, is who they appear to be.

What interesting directing strategies did you notice in scenes or sequences?

The most interesting strategy of Antonioni is the “play within a play” technique.  As the photographer follows Jane, for example, he is the “hunter” recording her on film, even as Antonioni’s camera is then more understood as capturing him.  Then, actor David Hemmings takes his shirt off in several scenes, and this has him resembling the thin, frail models he uses.  This is then a strategy of confusing power roles through visual impact.  I also admire the way the camera follows the hero through the narrow halls and streets, suggesting a maze.

What meaning do you take from the scene at the end of the film? Pay close attention to the last shot and edit!

The final scene seems to me to clearly indicate that the hero has made a choice.  He watches the mime tennis, he agrees to retrieve the “ball” thrown too far and, after hurling this back to the mimes, the camera stays on him as he hears an actual game of tennis playing.  He has decided to accept that reality is by no means the same thing for everybody, and it also seems as though he embraces a world where the unreal and the real are hopelessly confused.

The film does very much have a kind of silent movie quality to it, in that the most meaning seems in place when nothing is being said.  At the same time, this then emphasizes the quality of certain lines.  When the photographer crams the propeller into his car and the girl points out that it’s not a delivery van, he replies, “Who cares?”  This underscores the character and the film as based only on the moment and the desire of each moment.  Then, the meaninglessness of virtually everything is reinforced when, after he remarks to Patricia that he thought she was in Paris, she replies, “I am in Paris.”  In this world, there are no repercussions and reality is nothing more than what anyone chooses it to be at any given moment.