The Architecture of Vision: Writings and Interviews on Cinema [Hardcover]

Michelangelo Antonioni (Author), Marga Cottino-Jones (Author), Carlo Di Carlo (Author, Editor), Giorgio Tinazzi (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1996 | ISBN-10: 1568860129 | ISBN-13: 978-1568860121

master filmmaker of RED DESERT, BLOW-UP et al

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Editors di Carlo and Tinazzi collect 51 essays and interviews by Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni (b. 1912), the recipient of an honorary Oscar at the 1995 Academy Awards. Somewhat comparable in scope to Francois Truffaut's classic Hitchcock (1983) and, more recently, Peter Bogdanovich's This Is Orson Welles (1992), The Architecture of Vision provides a filmmaker's absorbing reflections and insights on his career. Both the essays and the much longer section of interviews (most translated into English for the first time) succeed best at taking generalizations about Antonioni?his introspective realism, his early fondness for long takes, his later innovations with color, his exploration of modernist "spiritual aridity" and "moral coldness"?and refining them rather than explaining their background and origin. Hence, the book will appeal most to readers already familiar with Antonioni's films (L'avventura, Blow-Up, Zabriskie Point, The Passenger) and with Italian cinema. The director sees the social neorealism of films like De Sica's Bicycle Thief as necessary for their postwar era but crafts for his own works a more psychological approach: "to see what remained inside the individual" after all the war and the upheavals that followed. Though some repetition inevitably appears, Antonioni's comments about his partly improvisational methods of shooting, his failure to ride the financial success of Blow-Up to even greater fame and his literary influences (Conrad chief among them) deepen and humanize a sometimes cerebral book.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This partial translation of a six-volume French work on director Antonioni, who won a Lifetime Achievement OscarR in 1995, collects articles by and about Antonioni in Italian and French journals, the overwhelming majority of which have never been available in English. The pieces are divided into four sections, the first two offering Antonioni's own writings and the last two offering texts of interviews by important critics and journalists. The essays are arranged chronologically in each section, helping the reader to trace the development of Antonioni's unique cinematic vision. There is some repetition, as interviewers tend to ask the same questions. But for any English-speaking scholar interested in the creator of such international masterpieces as L'avventura, Blow Up, and Red Desert, this valuable resource offers entree to material difficult to gain access to under other circumstances. Highly recommended for film collections.?Marianne Cawley, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 402 pages
• Publisher: Marsilio Pub (August 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568860129
• ISBN-13: 978-1568860121
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,632,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars God on film., October 11, 1999

By 

John Esther (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Architecture of Vision: Writings and Interviews on Cinema (Hardcover)

As with each viewing of an Antonioni film (sans "Zabrieske Point"), the essays in this book make the reader appreciate and "understand" the films of Antonioni more.

Antonioni is a genius, and what he has to say about the process of filmmaking is essential to anyone who wishes to make a respectable film.

And for those of you are still begging to know: Antonioni explains how he made that-probably the greatest in film history-final tracking shot in "The Passenger". God, what a shot that is!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Seller, October 10, 2010

By 

exercise is good "sc" (MA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Architecture of Vision: Writings and Interviews on Cinema (Paperback)

The book was in excellent condition and arrived quickly. The seller was very professional. I would highly recommend the seller.

The content of the book is quite interesting especially interviews with Antonioni.
This book is required for a class I am currently taking so it is a work in progress.