Christian Objects in Antonioni’s Films

I draw attention to the thus far ignored fact that Michelangelo Antonioni’s films deliberately show an unexpectedly large number of Christian objects, such as churches, crosses, and sacred paintings as well as priests, monks, and nuns. The functions I surmise of these objects are as follows: In The Passenger（1974）, which begins with the death of the protagonist’s acquaintance with whom he changes identities and ends with the death of the protagonist himself, Christian objects are shown as symbols of death at each important stage of this process. In other works of this renowned film director, Christian objects generally express tension within the changing contemporary society, and this tension is particularly notable in two ways. In some films like L’avventura （1960）, Christian objects are presented in such a way as to indicate the weakening of the traditional hold of Christianity on society. In other films, such as L’eclisse（1962） and Identificazione di una donna （1982）, Christian objects are presented along with the progress of relationships, although ephemeral, between man and woman. This is a vestige of the traditional Christian blessing of marriage. Such ways of presenting Christian objects are obviously deep-rooted in Christian culture ; their presence is probably too obvious for Western critics and scholars to pay attention to it.departmental bulletin pape