Michelangelo Antonioni filmography

Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor, who wrote and directed 19 feature films and over 20 short films. Regarded as among the defining figures of slow cinema, his work is characterized by their visual composition, minimalist narrative style, and recurring themes of alienation, modernity, and human relationships; his films are widely recognized for their influence on the development of international art cinema.^{[1][S 1]} He began his career as a film journalist for the Ferrara newspaper Il Corriere Padano after graduating from the University of Bologna in 1935. In 1940, Antonioni moved to Rome, where he briefly attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and worked as a screenwriter and assistant director while contributing criticism to the magazine Cinema, edited by Vittorio Mussolini. In 1942, Antonioni co-wrote A Pilot Returns with Roberto Rossellini and served as assistant director on Enrico Fulchignoni's I due Foscari.^[2] The following year, he traveled to France to assist Marcel Carné on Les visiteurs du soir and began work on his directorial debut with Gente del Po (1947), the first of several Italian neorealist short documentaries, which, although filmed in 1943, was not released until 1947.^[3]

In 1948, Antonioni continued directing documentary shorts, including N.U. (Nettezza urbana), Sette canne, un vestito (Seven Reeds, One Suit), Superstizione (Superstitions), and Roma-Montevideo, works that reflected the influence of Italian neorealism, depicting the moral and economic conditions of post-World War II Italy.^[3] The following year, Antonioni wrote and directed the 1949 short documentary film L'amorosa menzogna (Lies of Love) was screened at the 1949 Cannes Film Festival.^[4] In 1950, Antonioni made his feature-length directorial debut with Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair), which won the Nastro d'Argento for Best Score for Giovanni Fusco the following year, while Antonioni received a Special Nastro d'Argento for its "human and stylistic values."^[5] Antonioni's next feature was the I vinti (The Vanqueshed, 1953) a triptych of stories about juvenile delinquency set in France, Italy, and England.^[3] He continued exploring themes of social alienation in a series of feature films, including La signora senza camelie (The Lady Without Camellias, 1953), about a young film star's rise and fall; and Le amiche (The Girlfriends, 1955), which follows the lives of middle-class women in Turin. Il grido (The Outcry, 1957) marked a return to working-class subjects, depicting a factory worker and his daughter.^[6]

With Le amiche, Antonioni began to develop a more experimental narrative style that used fragmented storytelling, extended takes, and an emphasis on the psychological states of his characters.^[7] He continued this style with L'avventura (1960), which became his first international success despite a mixed reception at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize.^[8] The film marked the beginning of Antonioni's "alienation trilogy," which was followed by La notte (1961), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and L'eclisse (1962).^{[S 2]} His first color feature, Il deserto rosso (Red Desert, 1964), continued these themes and is sometimes regarded as an extension of the trilogy. All four films starred Monica Vitti, who was Antonioni's partner during this period.^[9]

Antonioni later signed a three-film agreement with producer Carlo Ponti that granted him artistic freedom to make English-language films. The first, Blowup (1966), became an international critical and commercial success, winning the Palme d'Or at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.^{[10][S 3]} It was followed by Zabriskie Point (1970), set against the backdrop of the American counterculture, and The Passenger (1975), starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider.^[11] In 1972, Antonioni directed the documentary Chung Kuo, Cina, followed by the experimental color film Il mistero di Oberwald (The Mystery of Oberwald, 1980) and Identificazione di una donna (Identification of a Woman, 1982).^[12] After suffering a stroke in 1985 that left him partially paralyzed, he returned to filmmaking with Beyond the Clouds (1995), co-directed with Wim Wenders, and concluded his career with Il filo pericoloso delle cose (The Dangerous Thread of Things, 2004), a segment of the anthology film Eros.^[13] In 1994, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his contributions to cinema.^{[S 4]}