Word: antonioni
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MICHAELANGELO Antonioni's Zabrickie Point, crucified by the nation. I press as the naive product of questionable motives, is not as simple as its detractors would have us believe. Consider seriously the question of why Antonioni made the film in the first place. Consensus: Antonioni is a smart 57-year-old who knows that whatever's happening isn't happening in Italy and has ventured in search of an important audience. This much is true: when Antonioni waves an American flag outside the window of a soul-less real estate tycoon, he is not out to educate his audience...
...Antonioni is a sincete man, and when he says the hope of the world lies with young American revolutionaries, he probably means it. His complex response to the nascent revolutionary movement is cheapened by a desire to convince YOUTH he's on their side. The true merit of Zabriskie Point lies in the way Antonioni uses his commitment to Youth and The Movement to explore a set of typical characteristics of the country, both urban and natural. It's important that we respect the man enough to know that, in the city scenes, he offers more than the simple-minded...
...parody. The opening off-campus meeting between Kathleen Cleaver and Black militants with potential white revolutionaries starts out well with acceptable archetypal ideology tossed around. The dialogue is more theoretical than these discussions usually get (radical meetings tend to bog down in debates on procedure, elections, factional conflicts), but Antonioni cannot be blamed for telescoping exposition to raise some basic questions; it's the sort of things movies do best. But the need to provide an atmosphere distasteful to Mark (Mark Frechette), the film's protagonist, prompts Antonioni to make the meeting noisy and confused. Soon after, Mark makes...
...time away. But Williams makes the frustrations of young love agonizingly familiar, the ache of awakening sexuality vivid and true. For pure eroticism, a scene in a beach shower between Paul and Christine, clad in bathing suits and washing each other's backs, is worth a dozen of Antonioni's desert orgies...
...Antonioni makes it obvious that he is rooting for America's rebelling youth. "I like everything they do," he recently said, "even their mistakes, their doubts." The moment applies neatly to his own film. Zabriskie Point is not a good movie. It is a weak statement with isolated flashes of brilliance. But even Antonioni's mistakes are likeable...