Antonioni

"Essential reading for those who want to delve into the work of one of the authors constantly referred to as pivotal in art cinema. -- Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television The essays collected in this volume reappraise the centrality and continuing influence of Antonioni's unique, demanding, and controversial language to world filmmakers. They testify that, even from a cultural and historical moment different from ours, his films can give us insights that allow to look with new eyes at the complexities and contradictions of late-modernity. -- British Universities Film & Video Council The editors of this centenary essay collection tackle the inherited critical view on Antonioni (""Interstitial, Pretentious, Alienated, Dead: Antonioni at 100"") in a helpful introduction, before opening the floor to a variety of specialised viewpoints. -- The Daily Telegraph * Tim Robey * The contributors to Antonioni: Centenary Essays approach the director's works with fresh, new inspiration and contemporary critical methodologies that underscore Antonioni's continued relevance to the cinema of our day, adding numerous original insights on such topics as Antonioni's documentaries, his relationship to Rome, and his last films, while providing fresh perspectives on the classics of the Antonioni canon, such as L'avventura, Red Desert, and Blow-Up. This is a book that belongs in the library of every spectator who loves the art of film-making. -- Indiana University * Peter Bondanella * Antonioni: Centenary Essays is an exemplary model for writing on cinema and modernity, a timely occasion for rethinking media reception in the twenty-first century through revaluation of Antonioni's films. The compelling essays, written by leading film scholars, challenge time-worn assessments of Antonioni's cinema, and situate their discussions in relation to aesthetics, film history, the character and specificity of the connections of his work to other media, and innovatively and significantly, to ecology (space, climate, and waste) as illuminative of his visual style. -- University of Pittsburgh * Marcia Landy * Antonioni: Centenary Essays is an important volume, and is certainly not an introductory reader in terms of coverage or ambition. As well as offering some challenging contemporary responses to Antonioni's work, it also offers an intriguing snapshot of how Italian cinema is situated as an area of film studies with more than a few opacities of its own. -- Screen * Derek Duncan *"