Antonioni: The Poet of Images (Hardcover)

~ the late William Arrowsmith (Author), Ted Perry (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Antonioni is one of the greatest living artists. As a director of film, his only living peer is Kurosawa, and . . . he is unmistakably the peer of the other great masters in all the arts." So spoke William Arrowsmith, the great critic and translator who, upon his death in 1992, left behind a series of unpublished lectures on the Italian master. Arrowsmith's lucid, creative, and passionately expressed lectures are an entertaining and immensely helpful guide through eight of Antonioni's most important films, including L'Avventura, Red Desert, Blow Up, and The Passenger. This book not only guides the reader through Antonioni's work, but also defends the cinema as an art as serious as any other.

Review

"One sad irony of William Arrowsmith's untimely death is that we now have his long awaited book on Antonioni....It is a brilliant and energetic elucidation of all the films of Antonioni's major period. Nothing matches the erudition and sensitivity with which he explores the filmmaker's moral landscapes and urban vistas."--P. Adams Sitney, author of Visionary Film and Vital Crises in Italian Cinema
"The richly detailed texture of Arrowsmith's informed and allusive essays is an apt response to the films of Antonioni and a compelling invitation to reconsider the director's astonishing oeuvre."--Charles Affron, editor of Eight and a Half
"A master of Greek and Latin classics, Arrowsmith writes at the top of his form on a resolutely modern filmmaker. Two great seeing minds meet in this book. It provides criticism at its best--probing, focued on the work itself, jargon-free."--Roger Shattuck, author of The Banquet Years
"William Arroswmith is one of the rare critics who supports his literary and thematic analysis of the filmic text with a close examination of film form and structure. Ted Perry's illuminating introduction provides helpful insight into Arroswmith's 'obsession with themes and innovations of expression,' thereby explaining why Antonioni called Arrowsmith 'a creative critic.'"--Vlada Petric, Harvard University
"A book of profound imaginative insight that overturns every cliche about Antonioni, exploring those elements of his vision and technique in which his originality and genius consist. Responding to the experience of his films, revealing the larger patterns of meaning through the sensuous details of which they are made, Arrowsmith has created a true 'poetry of criticism.' But this more than a book about film. It is a revelation of what it means to have been alive in the twentieth century, of the human psyche's struggle to survive, to remain recognizably 'human,' in a time of universal uncertainty and constant change,"--Herbert Golder

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 16, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195092708
• ISBN-13: 978-0195092707
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,669,736 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Here's a critic worth reading, September 12, 2000

By	TUCO H. "H. TUCO" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Arrowsmith's fascinatingly wide-scoped analysis of Antonioni's classic films is one of the best books of criticism I've ever read. You will not find a single line of cliche film criticism in this entire book, no jargon, just insight and more insight into the how and why of Antonioni's greatness based firmly on cultural and philosophical imperatives. No self-respecting Antonioni fan should miss out on the tonic of Arrowsmith's pivotal achievement.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressionistic, insightful, highly personal film criticism , January 13, 2001

By	T. Luck "theloniusluck" (Boh.) - See all my reviews

William Arrowsmith (deceased) was a classical scholar and award-winning translator whose depth of knowledge, keen perception, and sheer talent as a writer are fully evident in Antonioni: Poet of Images. Arrowsmith's rich knowledge of Italian and classical literature informs his humanist (and often striking) impressions of the following Antonioni classics: Il grido, L'avventura, La notte, Eclipse, Red Desert, Blow-up, Zabriskie Point, and The Passenger. The book is edited by Professor Ted Perry and includes an appendix with synopses of the eight films listed above, notes, and "further reading."