Michelangelo Antonioni, who died in 2007, was one of cinema's greatest modernist filmmakers. The films in his black and white trilogy of the early 1960s - L'avventura, La Notte, L'eclisse - are justly celebrated for their influential, gorgeously austere style. But in this book, Murray Pomerance demonstrates why the color films that followed are, in fact, Antonioni's greatest works. Writing in an accessible style that evokes Antonioni's expansive use of space, Pomerance discusses "The Red Desert", "Blow-Up", "Professione: Reporter (The Passenger)", "Zabriskie Point", "Identification of a Woman", "The Mystery of Oberwald", "Beyond the Clouds", and "The Dangerous Thread of Things" to analyze the director's subtle and complex use of color. Infusing his open-ended inquiry with both scholarly and personal reflection, Pomerance evokes the full range of sensation, nuance, and equivocation that became Antonioni's signature.

Publisher: University of California Press (March 15, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520266862
ISBN-13: 978-0520266865

Review
“Superb, one-of-a-kind volume. . . . required reading for anyone interested in Antonioni’s life and work.”
(W. W. Dixon Choice 2011-06-29)

From the Inside Flap
“Murray Pomerance’s close readings of selected Antonioni works offer surprising and rich insights at every turn. With a critical approach deeply informed by appropriate invocations of modern thinkers, writers, and artists, Pomerance situates the films in their cultural moment, even as his sharp, illuminating attention to detail and nuance expresses his admiration for the monumental accomplishments of one of postwar cinema’s most engaging if enigmatic directors. Pomerance is unsurpassed as an appreciative guide to one of the masters of the medium.”

R. Barton Palmer, author of Hollywood’s Tennessee: The Williams Films and Postwar America