At once a thriller, a fascinating record of Swinging London, and a disquieting meditation on image and identity, Blow-Up is one of the key British films of the 60s. In Antonioni's hands, familiar London cityscapes - streets, parks, flats - are made to seem as eerie as that mysterious island on which the girl disappears in L'Avventura.

The premise is conventional enough. David Hemmings plays a photographer who believes he may accidentally have captured a murder on his camera. But Antonioni's treatment of his material takes this into another dimension. Just as Hemmings keeps on enlarging his picture in the hope that it will yield its secrets, the director hones in on the faces and gestures of his actors. The closer he observes them, the more mysterious they seem to become.

Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Birkin, all 60s icons of a sort, are treated as models as much as performers. Dialogue is relatively scarce. There is an element of cold narcissism in the way that Hemmings is forever snapping away at the two women, as if trying to preserve the perfect image of them. In a way, he succeeds: the shot of Redgrave in her jeans, naked above the waist, looking hesitantly over her shoulder at the camera, instantly evokes the era.

Geoffrey Macnab

Prod co: Metro-Goldwyn Mayer

Prod: Carlo Ponti

Dir: Michelangelo Antonioni

Scr: Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra

Ph: Carlo Di Ponti

Ed: Frank Clarke

Prod des: Asheton Gorton

Music: Herbie Hancock

Cast: David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Peter Bowles, Jane Birkin

Running Time: 111 minutes

Screening: 23 June, 12.00, Jalta

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