Antonioni

Without time to properly mourn Ingmar Bergman's passing, we find today that Michelangelo Antonioni has also died. I could write almost the same post I wrote for Bergman for Antonioni - another filmmaker I respected almost without limits, without feeling the kind of personal bond I felt for the Imamuras and Altmans of the world. In some ways, he's less a "problem" for me than Bergman was - I felt that I could assess his work better, I felt more confidence that the limits I saw were really there - with Bergman, I couldn't convince myself that the problems were with the films, and not with me. I don't want to make too much of these "problems" - both directors did outstanding work, and I could watch their films over and over with great pleasure. As with Bergman, Antonioni's greatness, his importance, influence, and the quality of his films, are indisputable.