"I began taking liberties a long time ago; now it is standard practice for most directors to ignore the rules."

Michelangelo Antonionio

BFI Southbank kicks off 2019 with a major season dedicated to the groundbreaking and influential films of Michelangelo Antonioni. This major two month season Antonioni: Confronting the Modern World with Style will include a BFI re-release of Antonioni’s last American film, The Passenger (1975) starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, which will be back in selected cinemas across the UK from Friday 4 January

Antonioni was at the forefront of the great generation of Italian film-makers who took world cinema by storm from 1945 onwards. 

His subtle explorations of social and sexual unease passed unnoticed in the conservative 50s, but in the changed climate of the 60s, he came into his own, with films which were original in both form and content. Their slow rhythms enabled audiences to catch the feeling of a moment outside the framework of the action and the characters were distinctly of the present, existentially adrift in a world that had lost its bearings. 

From whatever point of view the audience follows the story, all (his) films have as a constant the need to see the world with open eyes, to catch the moment when emptiness crystallises into fullness, or when fullness evaporates into a discomfiting void.

Geoffrey Nowell-Smith

Here's our useful overview of the director's rich catalogue.