After Antonioni finished filming "Modern Love Trilogy" and "Red Desert", he signed a contract with producer Carlo Ponti, left Italy for a long time, and went to the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries to shoot different themes and forms. The film, the film uses English dialogue, the distribution company is MGM. This also contributed to Antonioni's contacts with musicians in the United Kingdom and the United States. It just so happened that the 1960s and 1970s were also the most active era of the British and American music movement, and a large number of today's icon-level bands or musicians were created in that era. Everything was like fate, and Antonioni's film collided with the British and American music circles at that time.
In 1966 Antonioni went to London to shoot Blowup, which was an unprecedented success. While it tackles the challenging subject of "impossibility by objective standards," the film has been a huge success and a hit, and of course the film's overtly direct sex scenes also helped at the box office. The film is starring David Hemmings and Vanessa Rigrave.
There is a wonderful concert scene of The Yardbirds in the film, which is actually not Antonioni's first choice. At the end of "Zoom", the actor saw a mysterious woman played by Vanessa Redgrave on the street in a trance, stopped to chase, and accidentally entered a club where a party was being held. A small rock gig. The selection of the rock band has been a bit of a struggle.
At the time, Antonioni was particularly fond of the British band The Who. He wanted to invite Pete Townshend to perform his signature move on set, smashing the guitar, but no one came. There is an episode here. The original male lead of "Zoom" was Terence Stamp. Two weeks before the start, Antonioni decided to make a substitution and used the later David Hemmings ( David Hemmings). The Who's manager at the time was Chris Stamp, Terence Stamp's younger brother, and that's what happened.
Antonioni's second choice, Eric Burdon of The Animals, was also rejected. He also considered the American band The Velvet Underground, who happened to be signed to MGM Records at the time, but that didn't work out, some say because their lyrics were too taboo. However, "Velvet Underground" guitarist Sterling Morrison (Sterling Morrison) told a different version, "to bring our entire team to the UK, the cost is too high, the director gave up."
As the filming approached, the crew invited a band called The In Crowd to rehearse on the set, which was not well known. Steve Howe, under 20, was preparing how to smash his guitar beautifully in front of the camera, when he was called on short notice to change the filming because the crew found the better-known band The Yardbirds. Not only did Howe fail to appear on stage, but the Gibson ES-175 guitar he left on stage was smashed by Jeff Beck. To his relief, Howe later joined the well-known Yes band and became an amazing musician.
The Yardbirds is the strongest guitar band in British history, Eric Clapton (Eric Clapton), Jimmy Page (Jimmy Page) and Jeff Baker three guitar heroes were members of this band. Clapton needs no introduction, "Tears In Heaven" should be the enlightenment work of many people's English songs. Jimmy Page went on to form the great Led Zeppelin, and in 2008 he did a solo at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
When "Zoom" was filmed, Peggy and Baker happened to be in the team, forming a two-guitar lineup, and performed "Stroll on" in the scene. Baker was fired before the film was released, and "Zoom" became a precious record of The Yardbirds' heyday. According to Antonioni's vision, Baker angrily smashed his guitar because of a faulty amp. In reality, Baker himself always lost his temper because of equipment problems. Later, in the famous fake documentary "This is Spinal Tap," a guitarist who loves to smash the piano was actually made fun of him. Of course, electric guitars are not to be messed with either. Ten years later, lead singer Keith Relf, who also appeared in the film, was electrocuted by a miswired guitar in his home at the age of 33.
The club was set up on set, with posters on the door and a tombstone painted with the inscription "Bob Dylan Died May 27, 1966 at Albert Hall". On the official day, Dylan performed his first plug-in gig in the UK, a gesture of goodwill to rock that was seen as a betrayal of folk. The crowd watching the show was basically a typical London swing youth. It is said that Michael Palin from the future comedy group "Monty Python" was also in the crowd.
At the end of the performance, Baker threw the smashed guitar off the stage, and the crazy fans scrambled. The protagonist walked out of the club and returned to the street, feeling that what he was holding was just a piece of worthless garbage, so he threw it on the ground. The story of "Zoom" may be similar, it may be an enlarged performance, or it may be a piece of garbage thrown on the street.
At the U.S. premiere of "Zoom", Antonioni was inspired by a piece of news that would later become "Zabriskie Point." It happened that "Zoom" achieved great success in the United States, and MGM's confidence increased greatly, which prompted Antonioni to test the waters in the United States. Zabriskie Point depicts a counterculture movement, but has been heavily criticized for the drab performances of rookie actors. The film ended in failure, and Antonioni never made another film in the United States. Now it seems that this work exudes a different kind of charm.
The film's soundtrack included popular artists at the time such as Pink Floyd (who wrote new songs specifically for the film), the Grateful Dead, and the Rolling Stones, but the arrangement was equally fraught with twists and turns.
Antonioni had heard Pink Floyd at a small party while filming "Zoom" in London in 1966, and by the time they were filming "Zabriskie Point" he got in touch with the band, hoping they Able to arrange music for his films. Although Pink Floyd had just lost Sid Barrett to regroup at the time, he had already had experience in soundtracking films.
Pink Floyd spent a month in Rome, working 12 hours a day to please Antonioni. In Nicholas Schaffner's 1991 biography of the band, guitarist Roger Waters recounted the experience, saying: "We had the whole film score in five days, but Antonio Nee said Eet was beautiful, but too intense. Obviously he wasn't satisfied, even if you corrected all the flaws he wasn't happy, it was too bad, too bad." Clearly, Pink Floyd has been Efforts were made to meet Antonioni's demands, but inevitably, the work was delayed.
In order to score "Zabriskie Point", Antonioni brought in John Fahey again, and asked John Fahey to arrange the music for the love part of the film, but their cooperation was not pleasant. According to John Fahey, Antonioni didn't even show him the entire script, "even though I begged him to show me the other parts so I could get the full background, he wouldn't tell me, in fact, he didn't want me Knowing what any other movie was about and didn't want to know what the hell I was writing because he felt like if he let me know it would mess up my arrangement. In fact the more I learned about this movie, the more he needed to The music will become clearer." John Fahey's arrangement was not used, and John Fahey and Antonioni had a big fight in Rome.
Instead of going to Rome, Jerry Garcia flew to Los Angeles to record his glamorous guitar in MGM's studio. Jerry Garcia wasn't Antonioni's first choice, but he met the director's request. As Don Hall recalled: "We went into the MGM studio and Jerry was sitting there alone, and they showed a love scene, and Jerry improvised with the movie. He did a good job, and it went with the movie. Very good, a genius." Garcia's work was appreciated and paid well, and MGM wrote him a check on the spot, enough money to buy him a new house.
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