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Blow-Up: A Reconsideration of Antonioni's Infidelity to Cortázar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2020

Terry J. Peavler
Terry J. Peavler*
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
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Abstract

Antonioni’s Blow-Up is one of the most significant and controversial films of the 1960s. Its success brought increased international recognition not only to its director but to Julio Cortázar, the author of the story that inspired the film. Because of the extreme complexity and ambiguity of both Blow-Up and its source, “Las babas del diablo,” critics have been unable to agree in their interpretations of either work, and they agree even less on the extent of Cortázar’s influence on Antonioni. A close analysis of the two works, with careful focus on the relationship between the creators and their protagonists and on the tension between the narratives and their self-conscious forms, reveals that many of the difficulties in interpretation are due to a priori assumptions of readers and viewers alike and that the similarities between the film and the story are far greater than has been supposed.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 94 , Issue 5 , October 1979 , pp. 887 - 893
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1979

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References

Notes

1 Quoted by Roy Huss, ed.. Focus on Blow-Up (Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall. 1971), p. 5.

2 Kauffmann, “The Invisible Immanence of Evil.” Review 72, Winter 1972. p. 24. Samuels, “Sorting Things Out in the Blow-Up.” Review 72, Winter 1972. p. 23.

3 Goldstein. “Antonioni's Blow-Up: From Crib to Camera,” American Imago. 32 (Fall 1975). 240–63.

4 Reedy, “The Symbolic Reality of Cortázar's ‘Las babas del diablo.‘ ” Revista Hispduica Moderna, 36 (1970–71). 224–37.

5 Ross, “Cool Times.” in Huss, p. 98.

6 Fernández, “Blow-Up: From Cortázar to Antonioni: Study of an Adaptation,” Film Heritage, 4, No. 2 (1968–69), 26–31.

7 Julio Cortázar, Relatos (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamcricana Sociedad Anónima. 1972), p. 530. All translations are my own. While Paul Blackburn's translation in Blow-Up and Other Stories (New York: Macmillan, 1968), pp. 100–18. is excellent, a more literal rendering is useful for purposes of comparison.

8 Blow-Up: A Film by Michelangelo Antonioni, Modern Film Scripts (New York: Simon. 1971), p. 72.

9 Kauffmann. “A Year with Blow-Up: Some Notes,” in Huss, p. 71.

10 Kay, “‘As Recollection or the Drug Decide’: Imaginings in ‘Among School Children’ and Blow-Up,” Southern Quarterly, 12 (April 1974). 227.

11 Freccero, “Blow-Up: From the Word to the Image,” in Huss. p. 118.

12 “Antonioni—English Style,” in Modern Film Scripts, p. 14.

13 “Michelangelo Antonioni Talks about His Work,” in Modern Film Scripts, p. 18.

14 Julio Cortázar, “Algunos aspectos del cuento,” Casa de las Americas, 2, Nos. 15–16 (1962), 6.

15 Julio Cortázar, in an interview with Rita Guibert, Seven Voices, ed. Rita Guibert (New York: Knopf, 1973 ). pp. 292–93.