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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Creature_Comfort, May 26, 2010
This review is from: Identification Of a Woman - (Mr Bongo Films) (1982) [DVD] (DVD)
It's churlish to complain that Identification of a Woman isn't the equal of L'Avventura, La Notte, Red Desert, Blow Up, Zabriskie Point, or The Passenger. If it was, it would be a masterpiece of European art cinema. While it perhaps falls a little short of those Antonioni high points, it's nonetheless an intriguing and beautiful piece of work in its own right. The customary Antonioni themes - the elusiveness of desire, the fragility of identity, the mysteries of visual perspective, the unreliability of knowledge - are explored in typically elliptical and aleatory fashion, and lead towards a characteristically inconclusive but bafflingly moving ending. And along the way there are scenes that are the equal of Antonioni's best for mood, atmosphere and sheer cinematic creativity and skill. Niccolo and Mavi's drive into the fog is a scene of brilliant mystery and power. Their climb up the stairs of a swanky villa to an elite Roman soiree is an object lesson in how to use the camera and editing to generate a sense of foreboding and philosophical unease out of the simplest of materials. Niccolo and Ida's voyage out onto a Venetian lake is a gorgeous metaphor for their unfathomable relationship. And if anyone can tell me what that mysterious object in the tree - to which Antonioni keeps drawing us back - outside Niccolo's window is all about, I'd be grateful. The animated final scene of the film, which some viewers find a let-down, is brilliant - almost the equal in conception and weird appropriateness to the endings of Blow Up or Zabriskie Point. This is a film which improves with every viewing and ought to be embraced as the last significant work of a great master.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Minor Antonioni..., April 19, 2009
This review is from: Identification Of a Woman - (Mr Bongo Films) (1982) [DVD] (DVD)
This is an obscure, latter day film by Antonioni, the last one he made before suffering a stroke that incapacitated him, and left him with no voice. It's not a particularly memorable one. The only scene I vividly recall is a traffic jam scene where the protagonist (a film director) is searching for the said woman in the title on a fog shrouded freeway. It's an astonishing scene, but it's really the only memorable scene in a 132 minute film. Antonioni pretty much lost it after The Passenger (some have said he lost it after Zabriskie Point, which is definitely debatable), and while this film has such excellent Antonionish moments, it's not a really memorable film. A shame.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Can play on any Personal Computer with DVD drive, February 7, 2010
Anthony and others should please note that european PAL-television DVDs that have all-region coding CAN be played on any Personal Computer with a DVD drive in the United States. When shopping for DVDs there are two features to check: TV format and region coding. The US has NTSC TV format and Europe has PAL TV format. Additionally the US region code is number 1 and the Europe region code is number 2. Some DVDs have all-region coding which means they will play anywhere in the world. US DVD players are NTSC TV format. If you have a PAL DVD like "Identification of a Woman", you can watch it on your portable computer or desktop computer with a DVD drive. That's how I would watch it. Whether sitting 12 feet away from my TV or 3 feet away from my portable computer, the viewing area of the movie is the same size to my eye. Enjoy.
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