ITALY: Romans pay homage to legendary film director Michelangelo Antonioni

People arrived at Rome's town hall early on Wednesday (August 1, 2007) to pay homage to Michelangelo Antonioni, one of Italy's most influential film directors as his body was put out to lie in state. He died on Monday aged Antonioni's portrayal of modern angst and alienation won him a cult following. His career spanned six decades and he was honoured with an Oscar for lifetime achievement in 1995. His most famous works included the Oscar-nominated "Blow-up", "Zabriskie Point" and the internationally acclaimed "L'Avventura" (The Adventure). The director's death late on Monday night followed that of Swedish film legend Ingmar Bergman, who also died on Monday, aged 89. Antonioni's deliberately slow-moving and oblique films were not always crowd pleasers, but films like "L'Avventura" turned him into an icon for directors like Martin Scorsese, who has described him as a poet with a camera. Antonioni's widow, Enrica Fico, recalled her years with the late director. She said they communicated in every way possible. Before the stroke he suffered in 1985, she said, there were plenty of words, but also screams and terrible arguments. "There was an age difference of 40 years between the two of us, so we had nearly opposite visions. My nature was nearly the opposite of Michelangelo's. But, eventually, our natures became only one nature," she told journalists outside Rome's Campidoglio. Born in 1912 in the northern Italian city of Ferrara, Antonioni studied business and economics at Bologna university and briefly worked at a bank, before dipping his toes into cinema by becoming a film critic in the 1930s. His first real involvement in film-making only came when he helped write the script of Roberto Rossellini's 1942 "Una Pilota Ritorna" (A Pilot Returns). He directed his first feature film, "Cronaca di un amore" ("Story of a Love Affair"), in 1950 when he was 38. Over the next two decades Antonioni directed some of the greatest stars in post-war Italian cinema, like Marcello Mastroianni, but it was not until the 1960s that he emerged on the international stage. After winning favourable reviews at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival with "Il Grido" ("The Cry") he scored his first real international success in 1960 with "L'Avventura", an exploration of the emotional sterility of modern society. His second breakthrough picture came in 1966 with the English-language "Blow-up", set in "swinging 60s" London, which turned him into a cult figure for moviegoers and moviemakers. Paying her respects on Wednesday actress Daniela Silverio described him as a great friend. "For cinema, expecially Italian cinema, he represented everything," she said. Laura Stilo, a fan of Antonioni, said she felt sadness, but also wanted to say thank you for all that he gave, "the innovation he brought". While many hailed him as one of the founding fathers of European avant-garde cinema, some audiences found his pictures, with their long, lingering shots, plodding and pretentious. Largely absent from filmmaking after suffering a stroke, he returned to acclaim in 1995 with "Al di la delle nuvole" (Beyond the Clouds), based on his own short stories. The film was co-directed by Germany's Wim Wenders. His final work, in 2004, was a segment of "Eros".. His funeral is scheduled for Thursday (August 2) in his native Ferrara.

ITN Source | August 1, 2007

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