Blowup [Blow-Up] ***** (1966, David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, Jane Birkin, Gillian Hills, Verushka, Peter Bowles, John Castle) – Classic Movie Review 2,836

Michelangelo Antonioni came to London in 1966 to make his multi-layered puzzle thriller film Blowup. David Hemmings plays a modish fashion photographer who pictures blonde Jane Birkin romping around with brunette Gillian Hills.

Esteemed Italian writer-director Michelangelo Antonioni came to London in 1966 to make his multi-layered puzzle thriller film Blowup [Blow-Up]. It turned out to be one of the highpoints of the Swinging Sixties, and has survived very well both as a movie and as an icon of the era thanks to its intelligence, challenging stance and visual flair.

More than most any other movie, it exactly captures the mid-Sixties zeitgeist, bringing the era into sharp focus. It is the winner of the Palme D’Or at Cannes in 1967. Antonioni was Oscar nominated for Best Director and for his share in Best Original Story and Screenplay, along with Tonino Guerra (screenplay) and Edward Bond (English dialogue).

David Hemmings makes a bland young hero but he suddenly became a movie star playing a modish, quintessential David Bailey-style Sixties London fashion photographer who, in one session, pictures blonde Jane Birkin romping around the studio with another brunette woman (Gillian Hills), and, in another, a statelier, alluring mystery girl called Jane – Vanessa Redgrave.

Later, Hemmings goes to the park and thinks he finds something very suspicious in the shots he takes of a mysterious beauty.

So, in one of the film’s most fascinating sequences, he blows up the negatives of his photographs for a better view, uncovering smaller and smaller details. Putting the bits of the puzzle together, finally he believes he may have photographed a murder. But the evidence vanishes and, as Hemmings watches a tennis match played without balls, we’re left wondering about truth and illusion.

Brief nudity and extended modishness brought the crowds in, making it a surprise popular hit. But Antonioni’s clever conjuring trick film made them glad they came.

Also in the cast are Sarah Miles, Jill Kennington, the model Verushka [von Lehndorff] as herself, Peter Bowles, John Castle, Susan Brodrick, Ronan O’Casey, Tsai Chin, mimes Julian and Claude Chagrin, and The Yardbirds pop group (Jeff Beck, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page and Keith Relf). The Yardbirds perform ‘Stroll On’ and The Lovin’ Spoonful sing ‘Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?’ written by John Sebastian. But most of the music is written and performed by Herbie Hancock, around 10 pieces.

At the Oscars, Antonioni’s work was counted as an Original Story but it was based on Julio Cortázar’s 1959 short story Las babas del diablo [The Devil’s Slime], collected in the book End of the Game and Other Stories, in turn based on a story told to Cortázar by photographer Sergio Larraín. Or at least its plot was inspired by Las babas del diablo.

The screenplay is also influenced by the life of Swinging London photographer David Bailey, who was offered the role of the protagonist, along with Sean Connery, who declined when Antonioni refused to show him the script, and Terence Stamp, who was replaced shortly before filming began after Antonioni discovered David Hemmings in a stage production of Dylan Thomas’s Adventures in the Skin Trade.

Blowup is the on-screen original title, though Blow-up is an alternate title according to The British Film Institute, used in publicity. Both are better than Antonioni’s working title The Blow Up.

David Hemmings died of a heart attack on December 3 2003, aged 62. It was his role in Blowup [Blow-Up] by which he was best remembered in the obituaries.

Jane Birkin died at her home in Paris on 16 July 2023, at the age of 76 after having a stroke in 2021. London-born Birkin began her career in minor roles in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup (1966), and in Kaleidoscope (1966). She appeared in the controversial film Je t’aime moi non plus (1976) under Serge Gainsbourg’s direction and found international acting fame with the Agatha Christie films Death on the Nile (1978), and Evil Under the Sun (1982), and is especially remembered for Daddy Nostalgie (1990).

Many, many congrats to cinema icon and national treasure Vanessa Redgrave on her 80th birthday on 30 January 2017. Champagne all round. Incredibly, it was 50 years since Blow-Up.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,836

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