On Bernardo Bertolucci's The Spiders Stratagem.

                           

The spider’s stratagem directed by famed Italian filmmaker, Bernardo Bertolucci, is a surprisingly a good movie. Of course Bertolucci is a varied Italian director, if not the most varied of Italian directors. He has indeed lasted through the several stages of film and movie making and has directed movies that we could even consider ancient. This is not to poke fun at one of Italian cinemas greatest director, but the man has been making movies for quite a while. Inspired by the shortest story ever written by Jorge Luis Borges’s, ‘Theme of the Traitor and Hero’ is a story that causes us to rethink everything that has been told to us by our fathers and forefathers. Bernardo Bertolucci style of directing help bring the suspense to life, maybe not in an aggressive manner, a suspense that is as delectable as a mystery dish forging to ones palate that makes us want seconds in order to truly enjoy it.

The various flashback sequences, though crucial to the narration of the fathers story line, I found to be annoying and sometime even irritating. It is not until later on in the film that we realize that these sequences are in fact flashbacks with Athos father as the protagonist. Both father and son portrayed by the same actor; the only way that Bertolucci differentiates the two characters is by a red handkerchief around the fathers neck. Though this similarity between father and son is justified early on in the movie, I found the flashback sequences to be lacking; the flashbacks could have been executed in a different way with more of an emphasis. Though comical at some points these scenes are dry and do not inspire any reaction until the very end, and even then it remains dry.

As I said the flashbacks felt out of place at times and in all honestly felt like it was not a flashback but a continuation of Athos story line not his fathers. At the same time this confusion I mention could have been made with all intention, as justified in the beginning of the movie, Athos is his fathers spiting image. Regardless of its minor flaws, the movie the spider’s stratagem is a successful film adaptation. A very entertaining film, that leads us through a path of self-discovery on Athos part, our protagonist. Even if the flashbacks are somewhat confusing, that is were the mystery dish aspect of the movie comes into play, just simply trying the food once is not good enough to really enjoy it, you have to go for seconds of the same dish in order to appreciate it. The film the spider’s stratagem should be watched more than ones in order to understand it all the way.

On Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-Up.”

Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow-up” appeals to our senses and the human psyche. With an expertise touch, Antonioni is able to guide our senses with much ease and is able to control our reactions to the movie. Intentional or not, Michelangelo Antonioni creates a work of cinematic art, while not a faithful adaptation to Julio Cortazar’s short story it is inspired by the it to some degree. The movie captures the unpredictable and sometimes even random nature of the piece Cortazar wrote. As I stated before the movie “Blow-up” is inspired by one of Julio Cortazar’s most recognized works of literature. Having been inspired by the short story, the movie does not have to be that faithful to the original work of literature, in a way it is a movie that makes several; references to Cortazar’s story, and it does not have to follow the original every minute.

What Michelangelo Antonioni is able to do with his film is capture what made Cortazar’s short story so interesting. The unpredictable nature of events that lead to a climax and leave us without resolve at the very end to the point where we don’t really know if all that has happened in the main characters life has been a reality or a dream. By witnessing Cortazar’s characters re-created in real time, we get to actually see them other than imagining them and their personalities. We are able to see the photographer who is very much out of touch with peoples feelings and emotions, as he has total and complete disregard for what others may feel, in contrast with the the characters who surround him who appear to just simply care more than our grumpy protagonist.

In the end the movie “Blow-up” is Michelangelo Antonioni’s interpretation of Cortazar’s short story he really does not have to be all that faithful to the story and I respect that aspect of the movie. I watched with much anticipation to see what it would all lead to and greatly enjoyed watching Antonioni’s take on a very good short story. In the end, at least to me the movie blow-up is a great experience and in closing the movie is as unpredictable if not more so than the original work of literature art that Julio Cortazar created for us all to obsess over in order to understand, and figure out what is it that really happens to our protagonist. On another note, the music Michelangelo Antonioni uses in the movie is very psychedelic and a reflection of the times. Along with this type of music, the colors used throughout the movie are also very much a reflection of the times and psychedelic. I am lead to believe that Michelangelo Antonioni did this in order to set the tone of the movie, a story and events that are not impossible at all, but very improbable. The colors and music help blend all these elements together and this is one of the ways our senses are guided.

Sometimes reality is the strangest fantasy of all...

Julio Cortazar has a way of creating a story that is closely intertwined with magical realism.  With an acute sense of the human mind, Cortazar uses a psychological approach at narration in his short stories. “Blow-up” in its English translation, is a short story amongst a collection of mind-bending short stories, each a psychedelic experience with an intricate nature in its own right. The appeal behind Julio Cortazar’s novel as well as his short stories is the way each work has its own character, the stories themselves are the character. Julio Cortazar in his many work can narrate a story with multiple points of views, and have them change back and forth simultaneously and cohesively. Hopscotch being the main example. The film Blow-up, A Michelangelo Antonioni film is an adaptation of Cortazar’s works, focuses on the short story “Blow-up”. An erotic film that won the best picture award in the year 1966, is a tale of free love and youth in post-modern London. A world of parties’ sex, fashion and music, the main goal is to disorient the mind, a trip.

Of course the main inspiration of Antonioni’s film was the collection of short stories by Julio Cortazar and in some aspect the film is able capture the essence of Julio Cortazar’s works. “Blow-up” can be consider Cortazar’s most notorious short story, and despite the amount of articles written on “Blow-up” it has remained to this day a controversial work of literature art. There are certain aspects of the story that keep the audience guessing still today. For example the tentativeness of the person narrating the story or the shift from first to third person narrators to name a few. These are aspect of Cortazar’s work that makes it appealing especially to the younger generations of readers and writers. Where Julio Cortazar is most successful is in his grammatical approach to narration. With great ease the words flow together, and constantly. In some ways what makes a Julio Cortazar narrative so appealing to the eyes is the language, and of course the situations. I recommend watching Michelangelo Antonioni’s film adaptation of “Blow-up” for the full experience of Julio Cortazar’s most notorious and entertaining work of literature art.