April 11, 2007

Antonioni Rides The Chung Kuo Express

chung_kuo_stroller.jpg

I just/finally watched the first part of Chung Kuo - Cina, Michelangelo Antonioni's amazing 4-hour documentary of life in China in 1972, which he shot at the invitation of then-Premier Zhou Enlai. When it was shown, the film was promptly denounced and banned by the Chinese Communist Party. [those inscrutable Asians! Actually not so inscrutable; it was Madame Mao and the Gang of Four's fault.]

Anyway, I only knew the barebone basics of the film's existence, but watching it, what immediately strikes me is the similarity of kid-related detail to the images in Kid-Size, the long-running exhibition of children's design through the ages organized by the Vitra Design Museum. The kid walking around with the crotchless pants and the bamboo grocery cart-looking stroller? They're both there.

A YouTube clip and some info links at my other blog [greg.org]

1 Comment

Did you find a physical copy, or did the torrent work? I'd love to watch that.

[I downloaded the torrent. it's pretty good quality, but it took a while. -ed.]

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