Blowup (1966) is among those rare films which enjoy a hallowed reputation based on its cultural significance rather than any artistic accomplishment. When released, it was hugely influential, especially among cinephiles.
It remains one of the most significant films of the 60s, impacting narrative structure and, most importantly, the use of cinema’s inherent manipulation of reality as a pivotal plot device. Director Jean Luc Godard would often take the same tack, though more heavy-handed.
It is ‘of its time’, awash in mid-60s fashion and attitudes. Commonly interpreted as a psychological mystery, Blowup is more a psychedelic pastiche of how Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni thought Swingin’ London could support his vision. And it is that very awkwardness, a culturally detached voyeurism, that somehow transmutes into existential angst. Enter the intelligentsia.
The film’s plot can be written in one sentence, and that’s a strength. It’s about a young fashion photographer (a mostly expressionless David Hemmings) who thinks he has captured a murder on film. Or has he? Antonioni stated that the film “is not about man’s relationship with man, it is about man’s relationship with reality.”
Blowup is a broken film with unresolved plot threads. Initially, the incomprehension was interpreted as suggestive of everyday life. It was later discovered that the film’s unfinished structure derives from budget constraints—Antonioni couldn’t film scenes that would have given the story more cohesion. Existentialism vs. capital investment.
Pauline Kael found Blowup to be vague and vacuously symbolic. She believed that these aspects led audiences to pronounce the film artistic and intellectual.
So—the critics disagree, years have passed, and now, decades later, people still talk about Blowup. That often happens in a cult film, where the mystery of its appeal is exactly, specifically that.
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