European Films

Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, whose works such as L'avventura, L'eclisse and Professione: Reporter inflamed the minds of serious movie-goers in the 1960s and 1970s, died yesterday in his home in Rome, incidentally the same day director Ingmar Bergman passed away in his home in Sweden. Antonioni was 94. Antonioni started as a documentarymaker and scriptwriter for Fellini and Giuseppe De Santis before becoming a feature fiction director with Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair) in 1950. With his Deserto rosso (The Red Desert), he won the Golden Lion in Venice. The Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival followed two years later, in 1966, for Blowup, for which he was nominated for two Oscars in the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay categories. He won a honorary Academy Award in 1995.