--- William Ahearn <
williamahearn@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm not being sarcastic but I think you missed
the
> point of Blow Up. It has nothing to do with
Welles
> or
> Chandler. It may be a spoof of how
Heisenberg's
> principle entered the pop mentality. If you
watch
> Antonioni's other films, you will see a
> non-resolution
> in many of them and L'ventura perhaps most
famously.
> One could argue that no murder occurred in Blow
Up
> at
> all. So how can you solve a non-crime? What has
that
> to do with Chandler or that over-rated,
> self-promoting
> hack named Orson Welles (sorry, I had to stick
that
> in)?
****************************************************** I'm
not saying that Blow Up is specifically a spoof on Chandler
or Wells expect to the extent that they represent western
story telling. Its a spoof on the Euro/American story line in
general and the mystery genre in particular. It sets the
viewer up to expect certain things we always see in stories
of this type, then deliberately doesn't deliver. No murder?
Well, he goes back to the park and discovers the body. But
when he comes back the third time, the body has disappears in
some unconventional way. I mean, an ambulence doesn't take it
away, nor do the police come and tape off a crime scene. So
most likely someone came back for the corpse and disposed of
it in some other fashion. Of course, it doesn't matter to the
movie because Hemming has already moved on to other concerns,
never revealing what he learned, whatever it was, to anyone
but us, the passive observers.
Blow Up is successful exactly because it forces the audience,
whether they want to or not, to examine what they,
themselves, bring to an entertainment: Their beliefs, their
expectations, their prejudices, and their desires. When
Hemming fights like a deamon to keep the broken neck of that
extrememly cheap guitar he catches in the rock club, then
casts it away when his pursuers give up, that's the whole
film in a scene. What is important? Even someone's death is
of no significance really, except to the extent the lawyers,
judges, police, and prison guards can make a living from it.
Hemming tosses the corpse away just as surely as he tosses
the guitar neck.
Patrick King Patrick King
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