Fashion photographer Thomas (David Hemmings) takes some snapshots of a couple in a park and when he develops the film he believes he has evidence of a murder. Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), the woman in the photos, pursues him and seduces him out of the film.
Jane demands the photos: "What are you doing? Stop it! Stop it! Give me those. You can't photograph people like that." Thomas simply replies, "Who says I can't? I'm only doing my job. Some people are bull fighters, some people are politicians. I'm a photographer." He only pretends to give Jane the pictures, but really gives her a different roll of film. Thomas returns to the park and discovers a dead man's body. But did Jane murder him or does an enlargement of the photo reveal a nearby man with a gun?
Thomas: "Don't let's spoil everything, we've only just met."
Jane: "No, we haven't met. You've never seen me."
Set in the trendy "swinging London" of the 1960's, the photographer lives an aimless, bored, nihilstic and decadent lifestyle. His character is underdeveloped and enigmatic, as are the rest of the cast. The plot is scanty, the film openly sexual. There are psychological twists, complex symbolism, and many possible meanings to BLOW UP. It is not entirely a murder mystery, mostly it's a tense and stimulating examination of the perception of reality versus fantasy.
Thomas: "I thought you were supposed to be in Paris."
Verushka: (smoking marijuana) "I am in Paris."
The best scene is when Thomas goes to a Yardbirds rock concert. The band has both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck on guitars. Michael Palin of Monty Python can be seen in the crowd. The band play "Train kept a Rolling" (incidentally the first song Led Zepellin ever played) during a "rave up". Beck smashes his guitar and tosses it out to the audience. Until then the audience was bored and passive, but they viciously fight over the guitar. Thomas manages to get it and is chased outside by other fans who want it. When he finally escapes, our anti-hero simply throws the guitar away. The film's ending is equally strange, with the photographer joining a a tennis match played by white-faced mimes with no rackets or ball.
BLOW UP is based on a short story by Argentinian Julio Cortazar, the 1959 "Las Babas del Diablo". It is Antonioni's first English language film, the most accessible, his only box-office hit, and considered a seminal film of the 1960's. It won the "Best Film" award at Cannes in 1967.
The cast also includes: Sarah Miles (Patricia), John Castle (Bill), Gillian Hills (the brunette), Peter Bowles (Ron), Veruschka von Lehndorff (Verushka), Julian Chagrin (mime), Claude Chagrin (mime), Susan Broderick (shop owner), Tsai Chin (receptionist), Chris Dreja (Yardbird), Melanie Hampshire (model), Keith Relf (Yardbirds' singer), Jane Birkin, Harry Hutchinson, Julian Chagrin, Claude Chgrin, Mary Krahl, Tsai Chin, Chas Lawther, Jim McCarty, Peggy Moffitt, Roaaleen Murray, Ann Norman, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Janet Street-Porter, Reg Wilkins, and Ronan O'Casey. Music is by Herbie Hancock. The script is by Tonino Guerra, Edward Bond, and Mechelangelo Antonioni, who also directed.
Unlike conventional thrillers, BLOW UP offers few answers. It is filled with ennui and secrets. We never learn about the murder, or indeed if there actually was a murder. The existential drama does not resolve. It's an enigmatic, cryptic puzzle with no solution.
