Antonioni, or, The Surface of the World
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20th century italian art history
20th century italian film
A01=Seymour Benjamin Chatman
art cinema
Author_Seymour Benjamin Chatman
Category=ATF
cinema
elusive plots
emotional life
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
film
film criticism
film studies
identificazione di una donna
il mistero di obertwald
italian film director
italian film screenwriter
la notte
lavventura
leclisse
michelangelo antonioni
modernism
modernity
mood pieces
movie studies
movies
opacity
striking visuals
stylistic language
visual minimalism
Product details
- ISBN 9780520053410
- Weight: 499g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 03 Nov 1985
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Michelangelo Antonioni is one of the great visual artists of the cinema. The central and distinguishing strength of Antonioni's mature films, Seymour Chatman argues, is narration by a kind of visual minimalism, by an intense concentration on the sheer appearance of things and a rejection of explanatory dialogue. Though traditional audiences have balked at the 'opacity' of Antonioni's films, it is precisely their rendered surface that is so eloquent once one learns to read it. Not despite, but through, their silences the films show a deep concern with the motives, perceptions and vicissitudes of the emotional life. This study covers films not dealt with in any other book on the great director, including "Il mistero di Obertwald" (1980) and "Identificazione di una donna" (1982), which have not yet been seen in the U.S. Its coverage of the early documentaries and features, when Antonioni was forging his new and original stylistic 'language,' is especially full.
In a free-ranging analysis of the evolution of Antonioni's style that quotes liberally from Antonioni's own highly articulate writings and interviews, Chatman shows how difficult it was for the filmmaker to liberate his art from the conventional means of rendering narrative, especially dialogue, conventional sound effects, and commentative music. From his first efforts to his triumphant achievements in the tetralogy of "L'avventura", "L'eclisse", and "Il deserto rosso", Antonioni's acute sensibility struggled to achieve the mastery that has won him a secure place in film history. Chatman's study is the only complete account of Antonioni's work available in English. Its novel visual approach to the films while attract not only film scholars but also readers interested in painting and architecture - both important elements of Antonioni's work.
