Antonioni’s America

Abstract

In January 1967 executives from MGM contracted with European New-Wave icon Michelangelo Antonioni to distribute his Palm d’Or-winning picture Blow-Up in the United States. With the commercial success of that picture, MGM entered into a second contract with Antonioni giving him carte blanche to make an American studio movie about the youth counterculture eventually titled, Zabriskie Point. This chapter evaluates the MGM-Antonioni interlude, emphasizing its historical importance as an early and fraught attempt at an American studio auteur picture revealing an industry on the verge of some very big changes.