Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007) was one of the founders of modern cinema and still has a profound influence on today’s directors. An Italian film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer, he showed since childhood a keen interest in artistic activities such as drawing and music (he was a precocious violinist).

His art contributed to the transition in Italian cinema from realism to being thought-provoking, redefining the concept of narrative cinema. The exhibition that will open on March 10^th 2013 in Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, his native city, organised by Ferrara Arte and the Gallerie d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Ferrara-Museo Michelangelo Antonioni in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, will trace the creative arc of Antonioni’s career on a totally different point of view.

In “Lo sguardo di Michelangelo. Antonioni e le arti”, curated by Dominique Païni, his works will be presented alongside the paintings of De Chirico, Morandi, Rothko and Pollock, in a constant dialogue between film and fine art, literature and photography.

On show also will be his films and documentaries, original screenplays and set photographs, his library, vinyl collection and other personal and professional effects. The director’s passion for the image is a common thread running through the exhibition, whether it captures a detail of reality, as in his documentary films and photographic enlargements, or an imaginary reinvention, like his series of water colour paintings, Enchanted Mountains.

His movies remain in the history of Italian cinema: the black and white trilogy of 'L’avventura', 'La Notte' and 'Eclipse'; the colour-fiction 'Red Desert' and also the masterpieces like 'Blow Up', 'Zabriskie Point', 'The Passenger' and I'dentification of a Woman' are only some example of his ground breaking productions. Antonioni’s favorite actresses were Lucia Bosè and Monica Vitti, two completely opposite icons of undisputed beauty.

 Monica Vitti in L'Avventura 

Written by: Elisa della Barba