September 29, 1912 - July 30, 2007
It is being reported today that Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni passed away Monday at the age of 94. Much can be made of the coincidence that he succumbed the same day as Ingmar Bergman. According to news reports, Rome officials are making plans for his body to lie in state; such is the stature of this director in Italy.
On their website today, the New York Times notes, Tall, cerebral and resolutely serious, Mr. Antonioni harkens back to a time in the middle of the last century when cinema-going was an intellectual pursuit, when purposely opaque passages in famously difficult films spurred long nights of smoky argument at sidewalk cafes, and when fashionable directors like Mr. Antonioni.... were chased down the Cannes waterfront by camera-wielding cinephiles demanding to know what on earth they meant by their latest outrage.
Mr. Antonini is perhaps best known in this country for the film Blow Up. The Westport Library numbers many of his films among our collection.