Philip Dodd presents a programme dedicated to the classic 1960s film Blow-Up, directed by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, who died in July. The film caused a major stir on its release with its mix of hip mid-Sixties Swinging London and a strange, ambiguous plot. But how does its meditation on truth and illusion in the visual image resonate now in a culture that is even more saturated with imagery than 40 years ago? Philip is joined by guests including writers Muriel Zagha and Iain Sinclair, photographer Eamonn McCabe and film director Michael Radford.
Playlist
Each month, Night Waves dedicates a whole programme to celebrating a cultural classic. In this Thursday's edition of Night Waves Landmarks, Philip Dodd and guests discuss Blow-up, the classic 1966 movie starring David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave.
Hemmings plays a cool, cruel photographer whose glib world of fashion shoots, exploitative threesomes and wealthy boredom is upended when he realises he has photographed a murder in a London park - or at least thinks he has.
In Britain at least, Blow-up is the best-known work of the director Michelangelo Antonioni, who died in July.
Philip Dodd is joined by the writer Iain Sinclair, the photographer Eamonn McCabe, the critic Muriel Zagha and the film-maker Michael Radford to discuss Antonioni's English language masterpiece and its unsettling new vision of London.
Iain Sinclair explains how he hunted out the obscure, sinister park where the central scenes of the film were shot - and found the remaining flecks of the green paint with which Antonioni had had the park's colour scheme touched up.
Eamonn McCabe reveals how, along with many other photographers, the film made a major impression on him as a novice photographer.
Michael Radford traces the film's influence on directors from Wim Wenders to Wong Kar Wai. The film caused a major stir on its release with its mix of mid-Sixties Swinging London hip and a strange, ambiguous plot - so why is it still worth watching today?
