MovieChat Forums > Blow-Up (1967) Discussion > Two sides of same coin?

Two sides of same coin?

posted 9 years ago by adamshl
4 replies | jump to latest

So what's our antihero's actual job? A staid, conventional factory worker or a hip modern artiste? We see him for a few moments as he leaves the factory with his quiet coworkers, only to sneak down the street to a swanky convertible in which he takes off--a playboy cruising the streets and engulfed in the fashion scene. From then on we never see or hear of his day job again. Does this suggest he's doggedly two-faced or just down-low practical?

[–] !!!deleted!!! (49761343) 9 years ago

So what's our antihero's actual job? A staid, conventional factory worker or a hip modern artiste?

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He was not a factory worker. He was a fashion photographer who was trying to break out as a "real" photographer by taking social realist photographs--in other words, raw, gritty pictures of poor and working class people. His first attempt was to sneak into a factory and take pictures of the workers there. You can see him having lunch with his agent later and the two discussing the photographs that he took in the hopes of getting them seen and putting him on the map as a respectable artist.

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[–] EliotTempleton 9 years ago

Thank you for paying attention; something the OP apparently wasn't doing.

[–] egv_ny 8 years ago

Those pictures at the beginning were not taken in a factory, he clearly says later that he spent his night in a flophouse, kind of a cheap run-down motel, a doss house, he'd go to any length to get his photographs, later he's seen at the restaurant selling them to his friend Ron.

I am Groot !!!

[–] kenny-164 8 years ago

To be clear Ron was not only his friend but I think his publisher, or at least someone who was going to help him publish his book of pictures. Thomas was not selling those pictures to Ron. He was showing him how far he had gotten in putting together the portfolio for the book.