Thanks to Hong Kong Film Festival, I’ve watched numbers of short films by Michelangelo Antonioni today. They lack the alienated ambience as usual in Antonioni’s films, and also not particularly experimental. But following titles are still pretty impressive:
People of the Po Valley
Year: 1947
It is my second time finishing a foreign, non-English film without any subtitles. Believe it or not, my first time is Fritz Lang’s M. But both experience are very impressive that I seem have tasted what cinematic language really means. As a debut, Antonioni already shows his capability in camera movement. This short film is like a flow along the Po River, and reminds me the lower class poetics of Jean Vigo’s L’Atlantis, with the photojournalistic power as in many masterpieces of Neo-realism.
N.U. is a short film about a street cleaner. Antonioni starts developing concept of alienation in this short film. The street is deliberately portrayed with little people with frequent use of wide and top angle. The street cleaner belongs to optimistic type character facing the boring and unwelcome working conditions. He walks bravely in the lonely street, as Giulietta Masina walks smilingly in Fellini’s La Strada.
Lisca Bianca is the barren island setting in L’avventura, where the disappearance takes place. This return Antonioni would make a wonderful documentary about geographical features on the island, if without the voiceover of a girl exclaiming “shark” then leaving no traces. Antonioni revisits his old place with too many memories which are too personal for sharing.
