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48-394: Blowup (also styled Blow-Up ) is a 1966 psychological mystery film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni , co-written by Antonioni, Tonino Guerra and Edward Bond and produced by Carlo Ponti . It is Antonioni's first entirely English-language film and stars David Hemmings , Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles . Model Veruschka von Lehndorff is also featured as herself. The plot

96-529: A doss house , where he has taken pictures for a book of art photographs, photographer Thomas is late for a photo shoot with model Veruschka at his studio, which in turn makes him late for a shoot with other models later in the morning. He grows bored and frustrated with the models and walks off, leaving them and the production staff in the lurch. As he leaves the studio, two teenage aspiring models ask to speak to him, but he brushes them off and drives off to visit an antique shop near Maryon Park . Wandering into

144-417: A "screeching change of creative direction" for Antonioni; the magazine predicted it would "undoubtedly be by far the most popular movie Antonioni has ever made". Bosley Crowther , film critic of The New York Times , called it a "fascinating picture", but expressed reservations, describing the "usual Antonioni passages of seemingly endless wanderings" as "redundant and long"; nevertheless, he called Blow-Up

192-452: A "stunning picture – beautifully built up with glowing images and color compositions that get us into the feelings of our man and into the characteristics of the mod world in which he dwells". Even director Ingmar Bergman , who generally disliked Antonioni's work, called the film a masterpiece. The conscience of Thomas in Blow-Up is not troubled by any sense of obligation or responsibility to

240-622: A Young Filmmaker". Films such as The Conversation , Blow Out , Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and Enemy of the State have been inspired by Blow-Up . Warner Home Video released a Region 1 DVD of the film in 2004. In 2017, the Criterion Collection issued the film on Blu-ray and DVD, featuring a 4K remaster from the original camera negatives, in addition to new bonus materials. Informational notes Citations Bibliography Psychological fiction The psychological novel has

288-480: A creative work. Because of its complexity, the genre often overlaps and/or incorporates elements of mystery, drama, action, slasher, and horror — often psychological horror. It bears similarities to the Gothic and detective fiction genres. A subgenre of the horror and psychological novel genres that relies on the psychological, emotional and mental states of characters to generate horror. On occasions, it overlaps with

336-509: A major role in the abolition of the Production Code and its replacement with the MPAA rating system shortly thereafter. Film writer Richard Corliss stated in 2007 that the film grossed $ 20 million (about $ 139 million in 2023) on a $ 1.8 million budget and "helped liberate Hollywood from its puritanical prurience" in the process. The film earned $ 5.9 million (about $ 41.2 million in 2023) in

384-424: A man's life. He is then disturbed by a knock on the door from the teenage girls. They have a sexual encounter in the studio before he falls asleep. After awakening, he learns that the girls hope he will photograph them, but is distracted by a detail in one of his blow-ups. He tells them to leave, saying, "Tomorrow! Tomorrow!" Thomas examines a blurred figure on the ground under a bush in the blow-up, which he suspects

432-453: A mock-tennis match at the park, and picks up the imaginary ball and throws it back to the two players when asked. As he watches the mimes continue to play, the sound of the ball being played is heard. His image then fades away, leaving only the grass. Uncredited: Antonioni's screenplay for Blow-Up is a " thriller -suspense" story revolving around the efforts of a young and successful fashion photographer in his struggle to determine whether

480-665: A psychological novel. French theorists Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari , in A Thousand Plateaus , evaluated the 12th-century Arthurian author Chrétien de Troyes ' Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart and Perceval, the Story of the Grail as early examples of the style of the psychological novel. Stendhal 's The Red and the Black and Madame de La Fayette 's The Princess of Cleves are considered

528-479: A rich past in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century works of Mme de Lafayette , the Abbé Prévost , Samuel Richardson , Jean-Jacques Rousseau and many others, but it goes on being disinvented by ideologues and reinvented by their opponents because the subtleties of psychology defy most ideologies. The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki , written in 11th-century Japan, was considered by Jorge Luis Borges to be

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576-422: A series of photographs he takes at a public park contain evidence of a murder. As Thomas persists, his quest leads him initially to question his technical mastery over the "hidden truth" recorded by his camera, then toward a confrontation with the realities of his life of "material advantages, gained at the expense of ideals". Finally, he questions the reality of his own existence. Film historian Gordon Gow identifies

624-515: Is a threat to humanity." The plot of Blow-Up was inspired by Argentine-French writer Julio Cortázar 's 1959 short story "Las babas del diablo", collected in End of the Game and Other Stories , which in turn was based on a story told to Cortázar by photographer Sergio Larraín . The short story was subsequently retitled "Blow-Up" to connect it with the film. The life of Swinging London photographer David Bailey

672-654: Is called into question. Anthony Quinn, writing for The Guardian in 2017 for the film's fiftieth anniversary, described Blow-Up as "a picture about perception and ambiguity", suggesting an association between elements of the film and the Zapruder film capturing the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy . According to author Thomas Beltzer, the film explores the "inherently alienating" qualities of mass media, where "the camera has turned us into passive voyeurs, programmable for predictable responses, ultimately helpless and even inhumanly dead". Bilge Eberi of Houston Press notes

720-417: Is known and the audience's suspense is resolved, but Antonioni leaves the meaning of the film open to speculation. Gow considers two interpretations for the ending: "Since Blow-Up is not resolved happily, but rather in a total surrender to fantasy and consequently to oblivion, we can take it either as an exhortation to come to terms with reality, or as a cautionary tale in which the pursuit of material gain

768-420: Is on the character's inner struggle dealing with political or technological forces. A Clockwork Orange (1971) is a notable example of this genre. [ The Tale of Genji , as translated by Arthur Waley ,] is written with an almost miraculous naturalness, and what interests us is not the exoticism — the horrible word — but rather the human passions of the novel. Such interest is just: Murasaki's work

816-415: Is seen apparently tampering with Thomas' car, and later when he and Jane are seen following Thomas in a Rover 2000 . Thomas drives a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III 'Chinese Eye' Mulliner Park Ward Drophead Coupé owned by DJ and television presenter Jimmy Savile . The car was originally painted white, then painted black by the production. Only about one hundred coach built Silver Clouds IIIs were made with

864-474: Is the dead body of a man shot by the gunman. As evening falls, he goes back to the park without his camera and finds the body, but is scared off by the sound of a twig breaking. He returns to his studio to find it ransacked, with all of the negatives and prints gone except for one very grainy blow-up of what is possibly the body. After driving into town, he sees Jane and follows her into the Ricky-Tick club, where

912-510: Is what one would quite precisely call a psychological novel. ... I dare to recommend this book to those who read me. The English translation that has inspired this brief insufficient note is called The Tale of Genji . Ricky-Tick The Ricky-Tick was an influential 1960s rhythm & blues club in Windsor , Berkshire , England, host to many important acts such as The Rolling Stones , The Who , Jimi Hendrix , Pink Floyd and Cream . It

960-552: The Disco-Tick evenings with Fridays and Saturdays devoted to live bands. Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band were regulars as were Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames , The Alan Price Set , [] and others including Herbie Goins , John Mayall , and Zoot Money . The Ricky-Tick also helped introduce Motown to the UK with The Supremes , Temptations , and Stevie Wonder all appearing. There

1008-483: The United States and Canada in 1967. Critic Andrew Sarris called the film "a mod masterpiece". In Playboy magazine, film critic Arthur Knight wrote that Blow-Up would come to be considered "as important and seminal a film as Citizen Kane , Open City , and Hiroshima, Mon Amour – perhaps even more so". Time magazine called the film a "far-out, uptight and vibrantly exciting picture" that represented

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1056-482: The Yardbirds are performing the song "Stroll On". A buzzing noise in guitarist Jeff Beck 's amplifier angers him so much that he smashes his guitar and throws its neck into the crowd. The crowd, previously disengaged, fights over the guitar neck. Thomas grabs the neck and runs out of the club, with much of the crowd chasing after him; once he is away from the crowd, he tosses the neck away and walks on. A passer-by picks up

1104-446: The abandonment of the code in 1968 in favour of the MPAA film rating system . Blowup has influenced subsequent films including Francis Ford Coppola 's The Conversation (1974) and Brian De Palma 's Blow Out (1981). In 2012, it was ranked No. 144 in the Sight and Sound critics' poll of the greatest films of all time and No. 59 in the directors' poll. After spending the night at

1152-626: The context, it's just a broken piece of a guitar [...] the important point here being that meaning, and the construction we put on reality, is always a group social function. And it's contextual." On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an 87% approval rating based on 54 reviews from film critics, with an average rating of 8.3/10. On Metacritic , the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics. American director Martin Scorsese included Blow-Up on his list of "39 Essential Foreign Films for

1200-494: The contrast between "the sinewy movements of the girls, their psychedelic jumpsuits and slinky dresses and multicolored minis," and "the blurred, frozen, inchoate unknowability of the death contained within [Thomas'] image," which "is a glimpse of the eternal and elemental...that completely reorders, or rather disorders, Thomas's world. As an artist, he can't capture it or understand it or do anything with it. As an individual, he can't possess it or consume it." Roger Ebert described

1248-463: The film as "a hypnotic conjuring act, in which a character is awakened briefly from a deep sleep of bored alienation and then drifts away again. This is the arc of the film. Not 'Swinging London.' Not existential mystery. Not the parallels between what Hemmings does with his photos and what Antonioni does with Hemmings. But simply the observations that we are happy when we are doing what we do well, and unhappy seeking pleasure elsewhere. I imagine Antonioni

1296-425: The film's release, Antonioni stated that the film "is not about man's relationship with man, it is about man's relationship with reality". According to Gow, "a mystery without a solution is instrumental to the theme of disorientation" which is sustained until the final moments of the film, in which Thomas fails to resolve the contradictions and ambiguities that arise from his investigations and his own life. Thomas' fate

1344-399: The film. They have a conversation and flirt, but he deliberately hands her a different roll of film. She, in turn, gives him a false telephone number. Thomas makes several blow-ups of the film of Jane and her lover, which reveal Jane appearing to look worriedly at a person lurking in the trees with a pistol. Thomas excitedly calls Ron, claiming that his impromptu photo session may have saved

1392-536: The first precursors of the psychological novel. The modern psychological novel originated, according to The Encyclopedia of the Novel , primarily in the works of Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun – in particular, Hunger (1890), Mysteries (1892), Pan (1894) and Victoria (1898). One of the greatest writers of the genre was Fyodor Dostoyevsky . His novels deal strongly with ideas, and characters who embody these ideas, how they play out in real world circumstances, and

1440-450: The girl [Vanessa Redgrave as Jane] he has photographed in the park. Human relationships do not go very deep with Thomas. Selfish and self-tormented, he draws what confidence he can from the mastery he has over his camera. Yet his blow-ups of the pictures from the park disclose that the camera has possibly functioned independently [of him], in the sense that there is more in the photographs than Thomas realized when he took them. Thus his mastery

1488-583: The interior and exterior filming, and Cowan's own photographic murals are featured in the film. Other locations included Heddon Street (where the cover of David Bowie 's album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars would later be photographed) and Cheyne Walk in Chelsea . The scene in which the Yardbirds perform "Stroll On" – a modified version of " Train Kept A-Rollin' " with new lyrics –

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1536-410: The murder and its aftermath – scenes with Vanessa, Sarah Miles, and Jeremy Glover, Vanessa's new young lover who plots with her to murder me – were never shot because the film went seriously over budget." O'Casey had previously told this story to Der Spiegel in 1967, where he stated that Dyson Lovell played the part of the murderous lover. Two scenes appear to give credence to this: first when Lovell

1584-467: The neck and examines it, but also discards it. At a drug-drenched party in a house on the Thames, Thomas asks a cannabis -addled Ron to come to the park as a witness, but cannot convince him of what has happened. Instead, Thomas joins the party at Ron's insistence and wakes up in the house at sunrise. He then returns to the park alone, only to find that the body is gone. Thomas watches a mime troupe perform

1632-452: The object in Antonioni's use of suspense: "In the case of Blow-Up, the mystery [i.e. whether a murder took place] is relevant to the film, but the solution of it is not. Indeed, the absence of a solution is part of the point: life's uncertainty...the true suspense resides not in the mystery of the photographic blow-ups, but in the instability of Thomas himself." In an interview at the time of

1680-413: The park, Thomas furtively takes photographs of two lovers. The woman, Jane, is furious at being photographed and pursues Thomas, demanding his film and attempting to take his camera. He refuses, and continues to photograph her as she runs away. Thomas then meets his agent Ron for lunch and notices a man following him and looking into his car. Thomas returns to his studio to find Jane, who asks desperately for

1728-480: The psychological thriller subgenre to enhance the story suspensefully. A subgenre of the drama and psychological novel genres, focuses upon the emotional, mental, and psychological development of characters in a dramatic work. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Requiem for a Dream (2000), both based on novels, are notable examples of this subgenre. Psychological science fiction refers to works that focus

1776-530: The unique slanted headlights, and it remains an iconic element of the film. MGM did not gain approval for the film under the MPAA 's Production Code in the United States. The film was condemned by the National Legion of Decency . MGM released the film through a subsidiary distributor, Premier Productions , and it was shown widely in North American cinemas; the film's critical and commercial success played

1824-403: The value of them, most notably The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment . In the literature of the United States, Henry James , Patrick McGrath , Arthur Miller , and Edith Wharton are considered "major contributor[s] to the practice of psychological realism." A subgenre of the thriller and psychological novel genres, emphasizing the inner mind and mentality of characters in

1872-654: The way something might be accomplished, as in "This needs to get done most ricky-tick." The term is used often in US military and law enforcement. The phrase in this context was first used in the US Marine Corps , but its origin is disputed: either derived from the Japanese phrase "riki-tik"[?there is no such phrase and 'tik' does not exist in Japanese], or from Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book short story Rikki-Tikki-Tavi , in which

1920-541: Was scored by American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock , and the English rock group The Yardbirds are seen performing "Stroll On". In the main competition of the 1967 Cannes Film Festival , Blowup won the Palme d'Or , the festival's highest honour. The American release of the counterculture-era film with its explicit sexual content defied Hollywood's Production Code , and its subsequent critical and commercial success influenced

1968-678: Was also an in-house "Boutick" where patrons could buy shirts and other clothes of the day. An Elstree Studios mock-up of the Ricky-Tick was meant to be the club where the Yardbirds are playing "Stroll On" while Thomas ( David Hemmings ) looks for Jane ( Vanessa Redgrave ) in Antonioni 's film Blowup (1966). David Bowie makes reference to the club on the sleeve notes of Pin Ups , his album of 1960s rock covers. "Ricky-tick" can also express quickness in

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2016-507: Was also an influence on the plot. Several people were offered the role of the protagonist, including Sean Connery (who declined when Antonioni refused to show him the script), David Bailey, and Terence Stamp , who was replaced shortly before filming began after Antonioni saw David Hemmings in a stage production of Dylan Thomas ' Adventures in the Skin Trade . Most of Blow-Up was shot on location throughout London. The film's opening scene

2064-457: Was filmed in a replica of the Ricky-Tick club at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood , Hertfordshire from 12 to 14 October 1966. Janet Street-Porter appears in the scene as an extra. Actor Ronan O'Casey claimed that the film's mysterious nature is the product of an "unfinished" production. In a 1999 letter to Roger Ebert , O'Casey wrote that scenes that would have "depict[ed] the planning of

2112-692: Was filmed on the Plaza of The Economist Building in St. James's Street , Westminster , a project by ' New Brutalist ' architects Alison and Peter Smithson that was constructed between 1959 and 1964. The park scenes were filmed at Maryon Park in Charlton ; the park has changed little since the film was shot, although Antonioni painted the grass green to meet his requirements. Photographer John Cowan leased his studio at 39 Princes Place in Notting Hill to Antonioni for much of

2160-502: Was happy when he was making this film." In his commentary for the DVD edition of the film, Peter Brunette connects it to the existentialist tenet that actions and experiences have no inherent meaning, but are given a meaning within a particular context. According to Brunette, this is demonstrated by the scene in which Thomas takes Jeff Beck's guitar neck out onto the street: "He's rescued the object, this intensely meaningful object. Yet, out of

2208-413: Was inspired by Argentine-French writer Julio Cortázar 's 1959 short story " Las babas del diablo ", which was later retitled "Blow-Up" to tie in with the film. Set within the contemporary mod subculture of Swinging London , the film follows a fashion photographer (Hemmings) who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. The cinematographer was Carlo di Palma . The film's non- diegetic music

2256-655: Was set up as an R&B venue after founders Philip Hayward and John Mansfield saw the success in early 1962 of the Ealing Club . At the close of the Ricky-Tick Philip Hayward went on to open Pantiles Club & Restaurant in Bagshot, Surrey. The club was resident at several Windsor locations over its lifespan, and in later days included clubs in Guildford , Hounslow , Reading and High Wycombe , but its most famous venue

2304-821: Was the Windsor river-side mansion at Clewer Mead . Gigs were also organized at the Drill Hall at Maidenhead in 1963, and hosted bands like Yardbirds , The Pretty Things and the Stones. The original venue for the Ricky-Tick was an upstairs room behind the Star and Garter pub. It then moved to another pub called the Thames Hotel, not in Peascod Street, Windsor but down on the Thamesriver front, before moving to Clewer Manor . Sunday nights saw

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