The Eye Museum in Amsterdam is today opening what sounds like a fascinating exhibition on Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni:
As their introduction states: From 12 September
2015 to 17 January 2016 ,
EYE is presenting Michelangelo Antonioni – Il maestro del
cinema moderno, an exhibition about one of the foremost innovators in film from
the last century. The exhibition shows how Antonioni renewed the grammar of
film by thinking in terms of the image and less in terms of narrative.
Antonioni was one of the first film authors who tried to
capture the state of mind of characters searching for meaning by framing them
in a particular way in a striking mise-en-scène. “Each square centimetre of the
image is essential,” asserted Antonioni. The exhibition contains film
fragments, photos by press photographers from Magnum, set photos, letters from
Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau and Umberto Eco, and paintings by Antonioni.
Antonioni’s films will be screened in the auditoriums and accompanied by
special programmes.
With his famous trilogy L’avventura (1960), La
notte (1961) and L’eclisse (1962) – all featuring his muse Monica
Vitti – Antonioni became one of the leading directors of the last century. A
stylistic perfectionist, he renewed the grammar of film. He conveyed
estrangement and faltering communication between lovers with sophisticated
mise-en-scène and wonderfully framed, desolate shots of industrial and desert
landscapes. Narrative, dialogue and action were of lesser importance to him.
L’avventura (1960) ranks as a turning point in the history of film and the
start of modern cinema. The director succeeded in translating the sense of
malaise among the affluent middle class into oppressive images. It was deemed
outrageous that, during a boat trip right at the start of L’avventura, the
celebrated actress Lea Massari was made to disappear from the story. The film
received fierce criticism at its premiere in Cannes ,
where leading actress Monica Vitti left the screening in tears. Nonetheless —
after a campaign of support from fellow directors who immediately recognized
the importance of the film – the film still won the jury prize.
As per the labels, there is a lot on Antonioni and Vitti and the films here ....
More at the link:
https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/news/exhibition-michelangelo-antonioni-opens-12-september
