Editing Michelangelo Antonioni (section)

== Career ==
=== Early film work ===
In 1942, Antonioni co-wrote ''[[A Pilot Returns]]'' with [[Roberto Rossellini]] and worked as assistant director on Enrico Fulchignoni's ''I due Foscari''. In 1943, he travelled to France to assist [[Marcel Carné]] on ''[[Les visiteurs du soir]]'' and began a series of short films with ''[[Gente del Po]]'' (1943), a story of poor fishermen of the [[Po valley]]. When Rome was liberated by the Allies, the film stock was transferred to the Fascist "[[Italian Social Republic|Republic of Salò]]" and could not be recovered and edited until 1947. The complete footage was never retrieved. These films were [[Italian neorealism|neorealist]] semi-documentary studies of the lives of working-class people.{{sfn|Cook|2004|p=535}}

However, Antonioni's first feature ''[[Story of a Love Affair|Cronaca di un amore]]'' (''Story of a Love Affair'', 1950) broke away from neorealism by depicting the middle classes. He continued to do so in a series of other films: ''[[I vinti]]'' (''The Vanquished'', 1952), a trio of stories, each set in a different country (France, Italy and England), about juvenile delinquency; ''[[La signora senza camelie]]'' (''The Lady Without Camellias'', 1953) about a young film star and her fall from grace; and ''[[Le amiche]]'' (''The Girlfriends'', 1955) about middle-class women in Turin. ''[[Il grido]]'' (''The Outcry'', 1957) was a return to working class stories, depicting a factory worker and his daughter. Each of these stories is about [[social alienation]].{{sfn|Cook|2004|p=535}}

=== International recognition ===

In ''Le Amiche'' (1955), Antonioni experimented with a radical new style: instead of a conventional narrative, he presented a series of apparently disconnected events, and used [[long take]]s as part of his style.{{sfn|Cook|2004|p=535}} Antonioni returned to their use in ''[[L'avventura]]'' (1960), which became his first international success. At the [[1960 Cannes Film Festival]] it received a mixture of cheers and boos,<ref name="guardian-houston" /><ref name="guardian-bradshaw" /> but won a [[Jury Prize (Cannes Film Festival)|Jury Prize]] and became popular in arthouse cinemas around the world. ''[[La notte]]'' (1961), starring [[Jeanne Moreau]] and [[Marcello Mastroianni]], and ''[[L'Eclisse]]'' (1962), starring [[Alain Delon]] and [[Monica Vitti]], followed ''L'avventura''. These three films are often referred to as a trilogy.{{sfn|Gazetas|2008|p=246}}{{sfn|Wakeman|1988|p=65}}{{sfn|Cameron|Wood|1971|p=105}} ''La notte'' won the [[Golden Bear]] at the [[11th Berlin International Film Festival]],<ref name="berlinale-1961" /> His first color film, ''[[Il deserto rosso]]'' (''The Red Desert'', 1964), deals with similar themes, and is sometimes considered the fourth film of the "trilogy".<ref name="nytimes-holden" /> All four films featured Vitti, his romantic partner at the time.

Antonioni then signed a deal with producer [[Carlo Ponti]] that would allow artistic freedom on three films in English to be released by [[MGM]]. The first, ''[[Blowup]]'' (1966),<ref name="kulleraugen-tast" /> was an international critical and commercial success and won the [[Palme d'Or]] at the [[1967 Cannes Film Festival]]. Set in [[Swinging Sixties|Swinging London]], the film starred [[David Hemmings]] as a fashion photographer and was loosely based on [[Blow-up and Other Stories|a short story]] by Argentine-French writer [[Julio Cortázar]]. The second film, ''[[Zabriskie Point (film)|Zabriskie Point]]'' (1970), was set in America and followed the [[counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]]. The soundtrack featured music from [[Pink Floyd]], the [[Grateful Dead]] and the [[Rolling Stones]]. However, ''Zabriskie Point'' was a critical and commercial failure, and has been called "the worst film ever made by a director of genius".<ref>Craven, Peter. "Uneasy moments from master of angst." ''The Age'', A2, May 17, 2008, p. 20.</ref> The third, ''[[The Passenger (1975 film)|The Passenger]]'' (1975), starring [[Jack Nicholson]] and [[Maria Schneider (actor)|Maria Schneider]], received critical praise but did poorly at the box office.

In 1966, Antonioni drafted a treatment entitled "Technically Sweet", which he later developed into a screenplay with [[Mark Peploe]], [[Niccolo Tucci]], and [[Tonino Guerra]], with plans to begin filming in the early 1970s with Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider. On the verge of production in the Amazon jungle Ponti suddenly withdrew support and the project was abandoned, with Nicholson and Schneider going forward to star in ''The Passenger''.{{sfn|Chatman|1985|pages=176–81}} In 2008, "Technically Sweet" became an international group exhibition curated by Copenhagen-based artists [[Yvette Brackman]] and Maria Finn, in which the creations of artists, working in multiple mediums and based on Antonioni's manuscript, were displayed in New York.<ref name="participant inc.">{{cite web |title=Technically Sweet, Curated by Yvette Brackman and Maria Finn |url=http://participantinc.org/seasons/season-6/technically-sweet |website=Participant Inc. |access-date=17 November 2022}}</ref> One of these was the short film "Sweet Ruin", directed by [[Elisabeth Subrin]] and starring [[Gaby Hoffmann]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Sweet Ruin |url=https://www.criterionchannel.com/sweet-ruin |website=Criterion Channel |access-date=17 November 2022}}</ref> Antonioni's widow [[Enrica Antonioni|Enrica]] and director André Ristum announced plans to produce a film based on the screenplay, with filming in Brazil and Sardinia to begin in 2023.<ref name="john hopewell">{{cite news |last1=Hopewell |first1=John |title=Michelangelo Antonioni Screenplay To Be Finally Shot by Gullane, Similar, Andre Ristum |url=https://variety.com/2021/film/festivals/antonioni-screenplay-technically-sweet-gullane-1234919561/ |access-date=17 November 2022 |work=Variety |publisher=Penske Media Corporation |date=2 March 2021}}</ref>{{update inline|date=January 2024}}

In 1972, Antonioni was invited by to China to film the achievements of the [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Sorace |first=Christian |title=Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi |date=2019 |publisher=[[Australian National University Press]] |isbn=9781760462499 |location=Acton, Australia |chapter=Aesthetics}}</ref>{{Rp|page=13}} The resulting documentary, ''[[Chung Kuo, Cina]]'', was strongly condemned by the Chinese authorities as "anti-Chinese" and "anti-communist".{{sfn|Eco|Leefeldt|1977|pp=8–12}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Healy |first=Gavin |date=2024 |title=Michelangelo Antonioni, Tourist Snapshots, and the Politics of the 'Backward Scene' in 1970s China |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220094241271006 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=732–753 |language=en |doi=10.1177/00220094241271006 |issn=0022-0094}}</ref> It was first shown in China on 25 November 2004 in Beijing, with a film festival hosted by the [[Beijing Film Academy]] to honour the works of Antonioni. The film is now well-regarded by Chinese audiences, particularly by people who lived during the Cultural Revolution.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=14}}

=== Later career ===
[[file:Michelangelo Antonioni.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|Antonioni in the 2000s]]
In 1980, Antonioni directed ''[[Il mistero di Oberwald]]'' (''The Mystery of Oberwald''), based on [[Jean Cocteau]]'s play, ''[[L'Aigle à deux têtes]]'' (''The Eagle With Two Heads''). Featuring Monica Vitti in the lead, the film delves into an experimental approach to color enhancement through electronic treatment. The process involves initially capturing the footage on video and transferring it to 35mm film stock during post-production.

''[[Identificazione di una donna]]'' ("Identification of a Woman",) a 1982 film shot in Italy, explores the recurring themes found in his Italian trilogy. In 1983, Antonioni published the book ''[[That Bowling Alley on the Tiber]]'', which contains [[sketch story|sketch stories]] and musings he described as "nuclei" for possible films.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rohdie |first=Sam |year=1988 |title=That Bowling Alley on the Tiber: Tales of a Director |journal=Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media |issue=35 |pages=137–139 |jstor=44111651 }}</ref> In 1985, Antonioni suffered a stroke that left him [[aphasic]] and partly paralyzed. Despite his incapacity to speak or write, Antonioni continued to direct films including ''[[Beyond the Clouds (1995 film)|Beyond the Clouds]]'' (1995), based on four stories from ''That Bowling Alley on the Tiber'', for which [[Wim Wenders]] was hired as a back-up director to shoot various scenes. As Wenders has explained, "without someone else, no film of his would find insurers." During the editing, however, Antonioni rejected almost all of the material filmed by Wenders except for a few short interludes.{{sfn|Wenders|2000|p=79}} They shared the FIPRESCI Prize at the [[Venice Film Festival]] with ''[[Cyclo (film)|Cyclo]]''.

In 1994, he was given an Honorary [[Academy Award]] "in recognition of his place as one of cinema's master visual stylists." Presented to him by Jack Nicholson, the statuette was later stolen by burglars and had to be replaced. Previously, Antonioni had received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay for ''[[Blowup]]'' (1967).

Antonioni's final film, directed when he was in his 90s, was a segment of the [[anthology film]] ''[[Eros (film)|Eros]]'' (2004), entitled ''Il filo pericoloso delle cose'' (''The Dangerous Thread of Things''). The short film's episodes are framed using a series of enigmatic paintings by Antonioni, a luxury sports car that has difficulty negotiating the narrow lanes and archaic stone bridges of the provincial town setting, a bikini-clad women performing a cryptic choreography on a beach, and the song "Michelangelo Antonioni", composed and sung by [[Caetano Veloso]].<ref name="bright-lights-johnston" /> The film was not well-received internationally. In America, [[Roger Ebert]] claimed it was neither erotic nor about eroticism.<ref name="chicago-st-ebert" /> The U.S. DVD release of the film includes another 2004 short film by Antonioni, ''Lo sguardo di Michelangelo'' (''The Gaze of Michelangelo'').

Antonioni died in Rome, aged 94, on 30 July 2007, the same day as renowned Swedish director [[Ingmar Bergman]].<ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/movies/01antonioni.html|title = Michelangelo Antonioni, Bold Director, Dies at 94|last = Lyman|first = Rick|date = 1 August 2007|accessdate = 30 October 2024|newspaper = [[The New York Times]]|url-access = limited}}</ref> Antonioni lay in state at City Hall in Rome, where a large screen showed black-and-white footage of him among his film sets and behind-the-scenes. He was buried in his hometown of Ferrara on 2 August 2007.