Blow-Up
Vanessa Redgrave, David Hemmings, Sarah Miles, Jane Birkin
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
The first English-language film by Italian auteur Michelangelo Antonioni was controversial when it was released in 1966. Although the film won the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes, many in the critical community accused the arthouse director of selling out and making a commercial film. Others claimed his depiction of swinging 1960s London was a fabrication.
Antonioni even ran into trouble back in Italy, where what's known as the 'orgy scene' fell foul of the country's Catholic censors.
Looking back, it's difficult to understand what the fuss was about. Blow-Up certainly did have a more structured plot than Antonioni's classic art-house tetralogy L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse and Il Deserto Rosso. But its theme of existential alienation is hardly commercial, and it fits neatly in the canon of the director's work. The film didn't depict swinging London accurately, but then it was never meant to be a documentary. The mild orgy scene now seems more exuberant than erotic.
Prior to Blow-Up, Antonioni's art films had already established him as one of the greatest filmmakers of the era. His themes of urban ennui and decadence among the Italian middle class caught the mood of the times.