Movies

The ennui, the alienation, the spiritual emptiness. Yep, swingin' London sure was a gas in the '60s, especially with all those merry-making mimes and starvation-thin fashion models to share in the fun. OK, so Blowup wasn't an Austin Powers kind of party. But it was the epitome of edgy Euro art film cool back in 1966, when a hedonistic flash of breast was big news. Oh wait. That's still big news. Now Michelangelo Antonioni's Hollywood crossover has reached DVD, released by Warner Home Video along with a couple other late-'60s English-language Italian jobs, Luchino Visconti's The Damned and Death in Venice.

Mr. Antonioni had made his name among international cinephiles in the early '60s with L'Avventura, La Notte and Eclipse. But Blowup found him a much larger audience, which included the dazzled, the scandalized and the merely confused. As Antonioni scholar Peter Brunette recounts in his audio commentary, "it was the last word in exciting, innovative filmmaking. Sexy, marijuana-smoking people were featured throughout."

Yeah, baby.

But for all that mischief, Blowup was and is a pretty dour affair. Mr. Antonioni, who turns 92 this year and is, remarkably, in post-production on an anthology film with Steven Soderbergh and Wong Kar Wai, is the king of isolation. And while Blowup is a bit livelier than his earlier films, it's not brimming with hope for mankind.

The story revolves around a cocky fashion photographer (the dashing David Hemmings) who keeps his narcissism on automatic. Then, one day in the park, he shoots a couple of frolicking lovers (one played by the ravishing Vanessa Redgrave). When he goes to develop his film, he sees something that looks suspiciously like murder in the background of his photos. (If this sounds like the John Travolta-Brian DePalma movie Blow Out, it's because Mr. DePalma once decided to take a break from copying Hitchcock to try copying Mr. Antonioni ).

But Blowup is really about the search for and creation of meaning, and why such a search is often subjective and therefore fruitless. As our photographer tries to piece together a narrative out of his freshly developed photos, he thinks he has cracked the case. But the truth always remains just beyond his reach. On the plus side, his search does lead him to a Yardbirds show, where he sees a young Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck strut their stuff.

It's a mixed blessing when big companies release classic art films on DVD. On the one hand, you like to see a Blowup or a Death in Venice reach as many viewers as possible. But a company such as Warner deals in such high volume, with such a vast catalog, that you can almost guarantee the finished product will lack something.

In this case, the Blowup transfer is a tad grainy, the cardboard packaging is cheap and flimsy, and the special features on all three discs are minimal. Blowup has Mr. Brunette's adequate commentary track and a couple of trailers. Venice comes with a stills gallery and a trailer, The Damned with a trailer and a thin, 10-minute profile of Mr. Visconti in action. As a famous pig once stuttered, that's all, folks.

In a perfect world, every great film would be released by a specialty house with the time and inclination to make every disc sparkle. Alas, as Mr. Antonioni would be quick to tell us, the world is far from perfect. But those mimes sure know how to party.

Blowup

B+

Starring David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Not rated (brief nudity, sexual content,
language, drugs, dead body). 111 min. $19.98.