Antonioni exhibition in Amsterdam

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