1966: Blow-Up people .....

I am starting a major retrospective on 1966 - that great year, maybe the best of the '60s (thoug'h '60, '62, '68 are pretty good too ...), here's a few scenes from Antonioni's BLOW-UP, not only a key movie for me, but for that swinging decade, to set the scene .... (next: 3 big American ones from '66: THE CHASE, HURRY SUNDOWN, HARPER).

Meanwhile, back to the park, the junk shop, that studio, Verushka and those models, the restaurant, the stoned party, the Yardbirds playing in the club, and another Antonioni dawn back at the park ... and those players in their prime: David, Vanessa, Sarah, and John Castle (who was also in THE LION IN WINTER and other goodies).  Watch the film, play the soundtrack .... use labels to bring up previous posts ... its the landscapes of London that fascinate here too, the new office buildings, Hemmings in his car with the two way radio (before cellphones!), the propellor, the painted streets and park, and "queers moving in with their poodle", "Nepal is ALL antiques" and "I AM in Paris"! The back of those buildings we see from the park is very evocative of that London too ...
The "Hollywood UK"  BBC tv series (TV label) has footage of the park as it looks now - Maryon Park, Woolwich, as well as interviews with Hemmings and Redgrave commenting on the film and how  Antonioni directed them.  

Above: Antonioni with Natalie Wood, plus Hemmings & Redgrave at the film's first screening in USA in Dec 1966, from David Hemmings book.