"Cinema is dead, long live cinema." -Peter Greenaway

And woe is he who bespeaks foul of Antonioni on this forum!

^{^}^It’s punishable by death dude. drive by style ;-)

I haven’t actually seen any of his films. What should I check out?

All.

I haven’t actually seen any of his films. What should I check out?

Well L’Avventura, L’Eclisse, La Notte, Red Desert, and Blow-Up are all essential. I have only seen The Passenger, Zabriskie Point, and Il Grido once each, so I’ll have to review them before deciding whether or not their worth recommending to Antonioni virgins.

Rossi watch any of his films, all of them implicitly hold all of his criticisms of Cinema intellectually within them, few filmmakers can challenge Greenaway’s directorial control and ability to filmicly express ideas (Baby of Macon and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover are his greatest I feel).

Also Greenaway’s main point is clear, he is calling out the Tyranny – and it I feel is indisputably the grand tyranny of Cinema – of Narrative-Convention, of expectation – this is what he is challenging and I think he is absolutely right too. So many filmmakers have become lazy and conservative in what it is they are trying to achieve, which isn’t necessarily their fault when one takes into account funding, distribution, studios etc, I feel this is obvious.

[Mubi is cocking up, sorry fucked up my last two posts and I had to re-bastard-type them]

Also, I don’t like Antonioni – apart from the end of Blow Up

I thought you just said you haven’t seen any Antonioni films.

No I was trying to suggest that you watch some Greenaway films by quoting what you said at the bottom of page two, but mubi cocked up the rest of my posts. I have only seen Blow Up, L’Eclisse and L’Avventura and (apart from blow up) found them incredibly tedious experiences, more akin to Photography than Cinema I thought I guess but I do need to watch more before I write him off.

Well Antonioni certainly seems to be a love or hate sort of filmmaker from what I’ve experienced.

Antonioni is a genius. L’Eclisse is a masterpiece.

Oh, I agree that Antonioni’s a genius. It’s funny though. Deciding which of his four films with Vitti is my favorite depends on which one I have watched most recently.

Great 30 minute audio interview with Peter Greenaway where he elaborates on his view on the death of Cinema

I’m surprised that Greenway didn’t mention the films of Stan Brakhage, whom was able to make film without scripts, without actors, and without cameras.