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Blow-up
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Our DVD Price: £7.99 RRP: 
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Film Description
Not just a cinematic close-up of mid-60s London based around the life of a fashion photographer but a brilliantly-written snapshot of an emerging rootless generation. Filled with dead-ends, false leads, non sequiturs and hanging conversations, the attraction of the here and now has an insistence that clouds any wider search for meaning or solid ground. Oscar-nominated first English language picture for Antonioni. Brilliant.
Film Information
| Director | Michelangelo Antonioni | ||||
| Starring | David Hemmings, Jane Birkin, Sarah Miles, Vanessa Redgrave
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| Genre | Classic Film
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| Country | UK | Language | English | Year | 1966 |
DVD Extras
Audio commentary by author Peter Brunette; Music only track, Trailer.
Technical Details
| Certificate | 15 | Length | 106 mins | Label | WHV | ||
| Cat No | D065135 | Format | DVD | Colour | |||
| Region | 2 | Aspect | 1.85:1 Widescreen | ||||
3 Stills
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Share your thoughts and opinions - write a review
Review by Graeme Hobbs on 3rd March 2004
Blowup has scenes that are too memorable for its own good. What has remained in popular memory – the photographic seduction session with Verushka, the three-way romp with Jane Birkin on the purple photographer’s backdrop, the footage of the Beck/Page era Yardbirds, and the fact that it’s David Hemmings’ finest hour-and-a-half as the strawberry-blond, tousle-haired fashion photographer, obscures the quieter intent of the film, which presents a brilliantly-focussed snapshot of an emerging rootless generation for whom the attraction of the here and now has an insistence that clouds any wider search for meaning or solid ground.
There is a pervasive melancholy to this cinematic close-up of a certain section of mid-60s London with its fashions and stoned parties. Every conversation seems to take people further apart than they were before they began and the distance between people is carried beautifully by Edward Bond’s dialogue which is filled with dead-ends, false leads, non sequiturs and hanging conversations. In all the words, relationships and actions throughout the film, there are none that add up to anything meaningful. Even when the precocious, bullying photographer who may or may not have unwittingly photographed a murder in a park tries to find the story behind the photographs, his skilled endeavour yields no reward. He is pulled ever further away from a meaningful use of the knowledge he might have gained. Finally, he is left with nothing but a ransacked studio and an enormously enlarged arrangement of light and shadow on a sheet of photographic emulsion. It’s a photograph that’s a decent enough symbol for society as represented in the film, fractured to the point of decomposition and in the search for meaning, finding only objects that are valueless out of context.
It’s a film that’s full of disappearances too - the murdered man disappears, Redgrave disappears (where does she go in that street scene?), and before the final credits even the photographer disappears from one frame to the next. It’s a tease of a film that gets under your skin like the rustling of the trees in the park.
View more reviews by Graeme Hobbs
Review by Roxanne on 2nd December 2007
Truly an I-conic film and actor David Hemmings , who is in every scene. Some comedic moments and an uplifting capture of the 60's. The selection of music was perfect and tasteful.I did not see till 40 years later for the first time and loved it.
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Thursday 4th December 2003
In 1933, Alexander Korda’s gleefully saucy, The Private Life of Henry VIII made a huge international impact. Starring the sublime Charles Laughton, and launching the career of Merle Oberon, it announced the arrival of a cinema uniquely different from European ... View article in full
Article - "Sex, Class and Censorship"
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When the first novelty picture houses opened in fairgrounds at the start of the twentieth century, it didn’t take the establishment long to realise that the crude films being shown were having a powerful hold on the working classes. Consequently, the British Board of... View article in full
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This film is part of the following Film Collections
Including: 10 Rillington Place, 28 Days Later, 84 Charing Cross Road, 9 Songs, Alfie (1965), An American Werewolf In London, Betjemans London, Blow-up, Charlie Chan - In London, Closer.
Including: A Fish Called Wanda, A Matter of Life and Death , A Room With A View, Blow-up, Brazil, Brief Encounter (Lean, 1945), Brighton Rock, Caravaggio, Dont Look Now, Get Carter.
Including: All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now Redux, Blow-up, Brief Encounter (Lean, 1945), Dancer in The Dark, Elephant, Kagemusha, La Dolce Vita, Marty, MASH.
This film is part of the following Customer Film Lists
BFI Top 100 British Films by MovieMail
In 1999 the British Film Institute surveyed 1000 people involved in UK film and television to create the BFI Top 100 British films made in the 20th century. Here is the result - each film here stands up to repeat viewings, and shows the incredible contribution Britain has made to cinema.
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This is your list: the 100 films you've bought the most of in the 10 years of MovieMail's existence. There are some surprise entries and some glaring omissions – but it’s all true, and, frankly, you’ve got very good taste! It’s such a good list that we're going to make it a permanent fixture on our website and to celebrate the launch we’ve slashed many of the prices on these wonderful films. Enjoy!
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