--- title: "Blow-Up" year: 1966 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/blow-up" fi1m_id: "blow-up" imdb_id: "tt0060176" tmdb_id: 1052 wikidata_id: "Q658204" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 62 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-26T16:05:38.682759+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T16:05:39.144184+00:00" region: "HK" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Blow-Up (1966) Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni · 1h 51m · Drama, Mystery, Thriller ## Identity Blow-Up - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/blow-up - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** blow-up - **IMDb ID:** tt0060176 - **TMDB ID:** 1052 - **Wikidata ID:** Q658204 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060176/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1052, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q658204 **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 62 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* The most frightening thing in swinging London turns out to be a blurred photograph of a hedge > Antonioni’s first English-language film puts a bored fashion photographer in front of a wall of enlargements and, for twenty minutes, makes looking at grey shapes the tensest thing imaginable. Around that sequence sits a film that despises the London it is filming and shows it. ## Synopsis London, the mid-1960s. Thomas (David Hemmings), a fashion photographer with a studio in a converted mews and a convertible he drives with the roof down, has spent the night in a doss-house taking pictures for a book. He comes back and bullies a row of models through a shoot, then lies on the floor of his studio, bored. Wandering into a quiet park, he photographs a couple among the trees. The woman, Jane (Vanessa Redgrave), chases him across the grass and demands the film. He refuses. Back at the studio, where his neighbour Bill (John Castle) paints abstracts and Bill’s partner Patricia (Sarah Miles) drifts in and out, Jane turns up to ask again, and Thomas hands her a roll. Then he develops the real one, pins the prints to the wall and begins to enlarge them. ## Review Michelangelo Antonioni spent the early 1960s making Italian films about handsome people who could not feel anything, *L’Avventura*, *La Notte*, *L’Eclisse*, and in 1966 he came to London to make his first in English. He found a fashion photographer, a park and a roll of film, and built *Blow-Up* around what happens when the photographer looks too closely at what he shot. It is a good film with a bad party in it. The good is nearly all in the middle. David Hemmings plays Thomas as a small, sulky prince of the King’s Road, calling grown women “love” and walking away mid-shoot to take a phone call. He drives with a two-way radio in the car and never seems to be going anywhere. Hemmings does not ask us to like him, and we did not. What he does instead is make Thomas’s boredom exact, so that when the man finally becomes interested in something we sit up with him. That something is a park. Thomas wanders in, hears the wind, sees a couple among the trees and starts shooting. Later, at the studio, he pins the prints to the wall and blows up a detail, then a detail of the detail, and Frank Clarke cuts between Hemmings’s face and the grain until the still photographs start to behave like a film. There is no music, only the wind from the park, which should not be audible in a studio and is. We were, to our surprise, frightened. Nothing happens except a man looking at grey shapes on a hedge, and we found we were holding our breath waiting for the shapes to resolve. It is the best stretch of the film by a distance. Carlo Di Palma shoots the park in a green so even it looks laid on with a roller, and the rest of London in the flat, clean light of a colour supplement: red brick, blank shopfronts, a row of houses painted the same dark grey. Jocelyn Rickards puts Vanessa Redgrave’s Jane in a check shirt and a skirt too short for her nerves, and Hemmings in white jeans that never get dirty however many gutters he crouches in. Herbie Hancock’s jazz comes mostly out of the record player in the studio, so that when Thomas lifts the needle the silence has weight. The result is a London that nobody who lived there quite recognised, and that is the intention: a tourist’s city, seen by a tourist who is not sure he likes it. Redgrave is the film’s other great asset. She plays Jane tall and awkward, arms folded across her chest, trying to keep time to a record and failing, asking for the negatives in the voice of someone who rehearsed the line in the car. She is not on screen for long, and the film is emptier once she has gone. Sarah Miles has less to do as Patricia, the woman from next door who watches Thomas with something between want and pity, and the script by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra never decides which. John Castle’s Bill paints abstracts and says he only works out what they mean afterwards, which is the film telling us how to watch it. It is not subtle, but it is quick. Now the party. Late on, Thomas goes looking for his agent, Ron (Peter Bowles), and finds him in a flat full of people smoking and lying on the floor. Antonioni plainly regards swinging London as a waste of everyone’s time, and he is entitled to, but he films the club and the party from the doorway, like a man who has been dragged along, and it shows. The club scene, with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck of The Yardbirds playing while a roomful of young people stand as still as a photograph, has a point to make and makes it. The party has no point and takes ten minutes not making it. We were bored, and after the park we resented being bored. Set against Antonioni’s Italian films, this is the one where his patience meets a plot that can bear it: a man looks and looks and the world does not oblige. The mystery does not resolve the way a thriller’s would, and anyone who needs it to should be warned. Watch it for the park, for Redgrave and for the wall of photographs, and forgive it the dope. It reached British cinemas on 16 March 1967, runs 111 minutes and carries an 18 certificate. *Fi1m score 74, published 26 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Blow-Up worth watching?** *Blow-Up* is worth watching for anyone with patience for a mystery that refuses to behave like a thriller, and we scored it 74. The twenty minutes in which Thomas enlarges his photographs of a park are as tense as anything we have sat through, and Vanessa Redgrave is the film's other great asset. A late party scene is a long stretch of nothing, and the mystery does not resolve as most would want. **How long is Blow-Up, and what is it rated?** *Blow-Up* runs 1h 51m. It is a drama and mystery film. **Where can I watch Blow-Up in Hong Kong?** *Blow-Up* is not on any streaming or rental service in Hong Kong at the moment. It is available in 3 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is Blow-Up, and is it suitable for children?** *Blow-Up* carries an 18 certificate in the UK and is not for children. The fear it produces is of the quiet kind: a man staring at grey shapes in blown-up photographs while the wind blows, with no music and nothing shown. Its adult content lies in the studio and party scenes, with sex and drug use, rather than in violence, of which there is almost none on screen. **How does Blow-Up compare to The Conversation?** *Blow-Up* is the picture version of [*The Conversation*](https://film.one/film/the-conversation): one man enlarges photographs until he thinks he sees a crime, the other listens to a tape until it drives him mad. Coppola's film is the tighter and more conventionally gripping, and the one we would hand to someone who wants a thriller. Antonioni's is slacker around a superb central sequence and withholds the answers, which suits viewers who prefer looking to being told. **What should I watch after Blow-Up?** After *Blow-Up*, try [*The Conversation*](https://film.one/film/the-conversation) (1974, Fi1m 92): A surveillance man listens to a tape until it drives him mad; the sound version of this. Then [*Blow Out*](https://film.one/film/blow-out) (1981, Fi1m 88): De Palma’s noisy American reply, with a soundman and a car crash instead of a park; and [*Performance*](https://film.one/film/performance) (1970, Fi1m 81): Swinging London filmed from inside the party rather than the doorway, and stranger for it. ### Reviews we read (9) - **Slant Magazine**, Chuck Bowen (4/4): Bowen finds the film moving and influential, though its critique of art’s limitations is tempered by an unexpectedly idealistic turn. He praises the sequence in which Thomas enlarges photographs of the park, turning them into an unsettling meditation on truth and perception. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/blow-up-2017/) - **Empire**, Kim Newman (95/100, inferred): Newman calls the film an absolute must, framing it as a portrait of swinging alienation rather than a straightforward mystery. He praises Antonioni’s eerie, attractive portrayal of London away from its familiar tourist settings. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/blow-3-review/) - **The AV Club**, Noel Murray (65/100, inferred): Murray finds the film’s central mystery less compelling today than its atmosphere, but still recommends enjoying its mod decadence and ennui. He singles out Antonioni’s sour, exhausted view of Swinging London and the film’s deliberately unresolved approach to meaning. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/blow-up-1798199380) - **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The page only shows a browser-check screen, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. No praised or criticized element is visible. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-blow-up-1966) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The article appears to be a review of Antonioni’s Blow-Up, but its text is inaccessible. I cannot determine the critic’s verdict or what the review singles out for praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1966/12/19/archives/screen-blowup-arrives-at-coronet-hero-switches-between-luxury-and.html) - **The Guardian** (60/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an absolute must despite considering it Antonioni’s worst, while faulting it for shallowness. They single out its glossy depiction of swinging London and its unconvincing party and club scenes for criticism. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/16/blow-up-film-michelangelo-antonioni-review-1967) - **Time Out**, GA (35/100, inferred): The review describes a film with flashes of brilliance but ultimately finds it weighed down by pretension and longueurs. It also says the film fails as a portrait of its subject. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/blow-up) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (20/100, inferred): The critic finds the film’s intended meaning inaccessible and calls its commentary on modern humanity a failure. They single out the London backgrounds and the leads’ performances for making an impression. [Read](https://variety.com/1965/film/reviews/blowup-1200421140/) - **Eye for Film**, Antoni Konieczny (50/100, inferred): The review finds the film’s style impressive but sometimes obscuring, and its experience can feel numbing. It singles out Antonioni’s direction and the film’s compelling use of urban space for praise. [Read](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/blow-up-1966-film-review-by-antoni-konieczny) ## Details - **Director:** Michelangelo Antonioni - **Director:** Michelangelo Antonioni - **Screenplay:** Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra - **Story:** Michelangelo Antonioni - **Cinematography:** Carlo Di Palma - **Editor:** Frank Clarke - **Music:** Herbie Hancock - **Costume design:** Jocelyn Rickards - **Producer:** Carlo Ponti - **Cast:** David Hemmings as Thomas; Vanessa Redgrave as Jane; Sarah Miles as Patricia; John Castle as Bill; Veruschka von Lehndorff as Veruschka; Jane Birkin as The Blonde; Gillian Hills as The Brunette; Peter Bowles as Ron - **Runtime:** 1h 51m - **First release (LB):** 18 December 1966 - **Genres:** Drama, Mystery, Thriller - **Also in:** [Palme d'Or winners](https://film.one/collections/palme-dor.md) (Winner, 1967) - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $20 million ## Where to watch in Hong Kong Not streaming, renting or buying in Hong Kong at the last check. Also available in: AT, GB, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1967: Best Director (nominated); Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated) - Cannes Film Festival 1967: Palme d'Or (won) ## If you liked this - *The Conversation* (1974), Fi1m 92: A surveillance man listens to a tape until it drives him mad; the sound version of this. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-conversation.md) - *Blow Out* (1981), Fi1m 88: De Palma’s noisy American reply, with a soundman and a car crash instead of a park. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/blow-out.md) - *Peeping Tom* (1960): Another London photographer who cannot stop looking, in lurid colour, and far nastier. - *Performance* (1970), Fi1m 81: Swinging London filmed from inside the party rather than the doorway, and stranger for it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/performance.md) - *L'Eclisse* (1962), Fi1m 88: Antonioni in Rome, no mystery at all, and the same people staring at nothing. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/leclisse.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/blow-up