RIP Michelangelo Antonioni

To lose one filmmaking legend is sad; to lose two on the same day, unthinkable, as if the cosmos had shifted. (And I bid a fond farewell to French actor Michel Serrault, most noted for La Cage Aux Folles, too.) That great period in international cinema that began in the late 1950s and early 1960s is rushing headlong toward its earthly end, but the films remain, and generations to come will ponder the elusive mysteries of Blow-Up, L'Avventura, and other great movies.

On a personal note, how nice it was to discover that 1970's notorious Zabriskie Point, a fascinating boxoffice failure I screened for my film group in 2000, had genuine merit besides curiosity value, and that The Passenger, like many of his films, is now available on DVD for pondering at home. His latter-day efforts are not a fitting tribute, but that he was able to direct them well into his 80s and 90s speaks to his fortitude.