BLOW UP

Blow-Up (1966), the classic film about a mod photographer with David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave, is a wonderful art/mystery film that offers a window into the world of Swinging London, 1960s fashion, and even sports a live nightclub scene with the Yardbirds (with both Jimmy page and Jeff Beck on guitar). A beautifully illustrated book came out in the fall, filled with photographs from the set and with reflections on the film and era. Spy Vibe has been a long-time fan of author Philippe Garner (Sixties Design, Helmet Newton, Avedon Fashion, Eileen Gray), and this is an excellent addition to any Spy Viber's library.

From Amazon: "Michelangelo Antonioni's 1966 film Blow-Up is a masterfully constructed and paced exploration of the enigmas that challenge our interpretations of both the moving and the still image. Photography plays a key role at the very core of the film, providing the metaphorical site for the director's questioning of the relationship between reality and perceptions. This book provides a fresh and stimulating study of Antonioni's masterpiece. It reassembles and re-tells - through onset stills and the original blow-ups - the film's key narrative and pictorial strands in a focused visual investigation that is complemented by the authors' analytical essays. These texts draw on new research and effectively situate the film in the social and creative contexts that informed Antonioni's screenplay and art direction - on the one hand through an account of the milieu of fashionable photographers and models and the media through which they became so vivid a phenomenon, and on the other hand through the revelation of the artistic and literary reference points that so pervasively enrich the film. " Blow-Up is currently our of print, but Netflix does list it as available for rent on DVD.