Blow-Up

Name: Blow-Up
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: December 18, 1966
Duration: 111 min
Rating: 82
Cast: Claude Chagrin, David Hemmings, Gillian Hills, Jane Birkin, John Castle

1966

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 22 Ratings

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8.1	User Score Universal acclaim based on 22 Ratings

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Blow-Up

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Movie Details & Credits

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | Release Date: December 18, 1966 | Not Rated

Starring: Claude Chagrin, David Hemmings, Gillian Hills, Jane Birkin, John Castle, Julian Chagrin, Peter Bowles, Sarah Miles, Vanessa Redgrave, Veruschka von Lehndorff

Summary: A mod London photographer finds something very suspicious in the shots he has taken of a mysterious beauty in a desolate park.

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 111 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Chuck Bowen

Blow-Up is moving and influential for the chasms it understands to exist between people, and for its perception of art as unable to bridge those divides. Read full review

100

Ed Gonzalez

Blowup daringly suggests that an image without politics isn’t an image at all. Read full review

100

Roger Ebert

Whether there was a murder isn't the point. The film is about a character mired in ennui and distaste, who is roused by his photographs into something approaching passion. Read full review

Noel Murray

Blow-Up defies analysis by design, given that it's about an artist who makes messes and cleans them up only in part, leaving behind the splatter that interests him. Antonioni follows a similar methodology, making strict interpretations of Blow-Up pretty pointless, and certainly less enjoyable than soaking up the mod decadence and ennui. Read full review

J. Hoberman

A prize ‘60s artifact, Michelangelo Antonioni’s what-is-truth? meditation on Swinging London is a movie to appreciate—if not ponder. Read full review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

This is so ravishing to look at (the colors all seem newly minted) and pleasurable to follow (the enigmas are usually more teasing than worrying) that you're likely to excuse the metaphysical pretensions—which become prevalent only at the very end—and go with the 60s flow, just as the original audiences did. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

As often with Antonioni, a film riddled with moments of brilliance and scuppered by infuriating pretensions; full of longueurs, it works neither as a portrait of Swinging London, nor as a bona fide thriller. Read full review

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User Reviews

sidawy

Oct 18, 2021

The artist sees in his painting what no recipient of art, no matter how interested he is, sees, as well as a film director, no matter how versed we are in the world of cinema. More secrets appeared to him. I once read about the end of the masterpiece of the controversial Italian directorThe artist sees in his painting what no recipient of art, no matter how interested he is, sees, as well as a film director, no matter how versed we are in the world of cinema. More secrets appeared to him. I once read about the end of the masterpiece of the controversial Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni BLOW-UP, the sentence "a plot twist without a plot", I understand his intent, but I do not agree at all with this sentence to describe this exact ending, the end was at the heart of the plot.
At the beginning of the film we see the city of London as if it was one of the cities of the Italian realism films by Federico Fellini, then a journey in the world of the beloved photographer Thomas as if he was the hero of one of the French New Wave films, then a murder and Hitchcocky mystery, and then .. blowing up all of the above with illusion..
After I finished this film, I thought to myself: If I become a filmmaker one day, I will do what Antonioni did in this film? Do I have the guts? Now my answer is no. Who am I to finish my film with a tennis match without a tennis ball or rackets?… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

gracjanski

Oct 16, 2022

This is a typical movie I dont like: not sympathetic main protagonist, cold and too serious atmosphere, pseudo hip setting, looooong scenes with so few story. Of course you need to think about the movie, but I almost fell asleep and could endure the last 30 minutes any more.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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