tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post2065565666418131265..comments2024-03-27T06:20:06.991+00:00Comments on fantastic journal: historic hipster urbanismCharles Hollandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-71173065873556228352011-04-07T09:19:53.312+00:002011-04-07T09:19:53.312+00:00Yes, but I'm all upset now.....
....kidding....Yes, but I'm all upset now.....<br /><br /><br />....kidding. Ta for comments. And now, I'm off to watch The Passenger.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-22390916780633170542011-04-07T03:52:17.565+00:002011-04-07T03:52:17.565+00:00I thought your post was fine, actually... it's...I thought your post was fine, actually... it's not like we have to write The Definitive Review every time we feel like mentioning something that we've enjoyed revisiting. Don't be put off by my fanboy rants!Giovanni Tisohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10618534731338616708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-87008767338134047632011-04-06T11:49:33.907+00:002011-04-06T11:49:33.907+00:00I agree that the concept of pretension is pretty u...I agree that the concept of pretension is pretty useless here, merely acting as a block on thinking about it too seriously.<br /><br />In general though I think the problem lies with the original post. My misreading of the final scene is particularly unforgivable in this respect. I rather wish I had waited a bit longer and written a more considered piece as it doesn't really do the film justice or get to grips with some of its fundamental concerns.<br /><br />I've added a brief addendum to it btw, although that doesn't quite get it either I don't think.<br /><br />Oh well, five our of ten!Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-6227351626649250912011-04-05T20:33:50.160+00:002011-04-05T20:33:50.160+00:00Maybe I'm being a bit harsh with pretentious -...<i>Maybe I'm being a bit harsh with pretentious - the tennis scene works on its own terms as the climax of the film, it just sounds pretentious in the extreme when one tries to talk about it afterwards.</i><br /><br />What the...? Is this how we berate things now, because you can't talk about them without sounding pretentious? Bah.<br /><br />It's damn near as close as you'll get to the perfect scene - dramatically, thematically, cinematically. It advances the plot. It's indelibly memorable. Really now.Giovanni Tisohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10618534731338616708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-42333287423143048882011-04-05T12:05:40.266+00:002011-04-05T12:05:40.266+00:00Maybe I'm being a bit harsh with pretentious -...Maybe I'm being a bit harsh with pretentious - the tennis scene works on its own terms as the climax of the film, it just sounds pretentious in the extreme when one tries to talk about it afterwards.<br /><br />I think it stands in the tradition of fantastic films about Britain by outsiders, from Polanski to Last Resort.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12608144436173241063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-6692663546551823382011-04-03T19:56:11.916+00:002011-04-03T19:56:11.916+00:00Giovanni, yes I see what you mean about the tennis...Giovanni, yes I see what you mean about the tennis game, although I know next to nothing about object orientated ontology. As you say, there's an awful lot to un-pick with that film. I've been thinking about it a lot since writing the post and would probably tackle it differently already. Incidentally though, I was in the Barbican today which overlooks London Wall and down which Thomas drives early in the film. I found myself looking for the office blocks that were new then but are mostly demolished now. There are one or two and they look distinctly shabby. I've never noticed them before!<br /><br />Matt, I tend more towards the view that it's a fantastic film myself. Especially having thought about it since re-watching it. It really repays a lot of effort and I think it's much, much more deliberate than you suggest. Part of its deliberateness is the prevarication and wandering off the "plot". Pretentiousness is always a dangerous term, tending to be deployed in the direction of anything that isn't totally straightforward or literal. <br /><br />I must watch The Passenger though.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-54650157971778094212011-04-03T12:12:29.110+00:002011-04-03T12:12:29.110+00:00Ditto. Snap. (I also saw Blow Up again recently, h...Ditto. Snap. (I also saw Blow Up again recently, having not seen it since a teenager.)<br /><br />To be honest, I think it's a curate's egg mood-piece, which isn't really the sum of its parts. Very adept at creating a torporific, paranoid ambience but hard to tell how much of the shaky "plot" and the pretentious ending are deliberate or not.<br /><br />That said, you can still file it under Great Films About Britain Shot By Foreigners.<br /><br />And the opening sequence around The Economist HQ has an architectural echo in Antonioni's other London film, The Passenger, where Jack Nicholson briefly wanders around the then-new Brunswick Centre. I shit thee not.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12608144436173241063noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-63681998396855158372011-04-02T22:24:56.874+00:002011-04-02T22:24:56.874+00:00Ah - you're very kind. I do have a couple of A...Ah - you're very kind. I do have a couple of Antonioni posts in the works but writing about something you venerate is always the hardest I find, and it will open up some topics, including conspiracy theory as you note, that would take some time to tackle. <br /><br />But just to show how obsessed I am: at one point I wrote about Landscape with the Fall of Icarus in the hope that somebody would point out that <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MFEeDQOmK_g/TOEHxqJrn-I/AAAAAAAABz8/nrqRP9c7kWg/s1600/corpse.jpg" rel="nofollow">the corpse in the bushes in the painting</a> is practically identical to <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MFEeDQOmK_g/TSlsjx1o_lI/AAAAAAAAB5w/4VTXVN9U78c/s1600/corpse.jpg" rel="nofollow">the corpse in the bushes in Blow Up</a>. However nobody did because as we have discussed elsewhere these expectations are always bound to be confounded, both positively and negatively. <br /><br />And speaking of expectations: has any of our object oriented philosopher friends written about the tennis match at the end of the film? To my mind it quite neatly explains how culture works, I'd love to hear their take on it.Giovanni Tisohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10618534731338616708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-83776184987048348892011-04-02T21:05:27.697+00:002011-04-02T21:05:27.697+00:00Yes, slightly embarrassed not to have mentioned th...Yes, slightly embarrassed not to have mentioned the Herbie Hancock soundtrack. To be honest I feel I need to watch it again and published this post rather sooner than I should have. It repays a lot of scrutiny and its hard to avoid lapsing into other people's cliches when talking about it - I feel I haven't got any way beyond that here. Perhaps you should have a go - I would love to read your take on it.Charles Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08749776401395551607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3795208825742635713.post-8141425514072453552011-04-02T06:02:09.652+00:002011-04-02T06:02:09.652+00:00I never tire of it, although admittedly I'm ob...I never tire of it, although admittedly I'm obsessed by some of its themes. And surely it has the best soundtrack in the history of filmmaking, which doesn't hurt in the rewatching. <br /><br />Have you seen Red Desert by any chance? It is set in the very striking - and strikingly photographed - industrial periphery of Ravenna, and clashes quite interestingly with Blow Up. It is (uncannily) even more beautiful to look at, and far more strident to listen to.Giovanni Tisohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10618534731338616708noreply@blogger.com