Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni dies

August 01, 2007 Antonioni's family made the announcement Tuesday, and as the news spread across Italy, public figures lined up to pay their respects to the celebrated director. Director Marco Bellocchio called Antonioni "a pillar" of Italian cinema, and Rome Mayor and film buff Walter Veltroni said that "with Antonioni dies not only one of the greatest directors but also a master of modernity." Antonioni was not prolific, producing only two dozen features in a career that spanned more than six decades, but his influence on Italian cinema is enormous, and he was regarded as the main counterbalance to the neorealism of such contemporary Italian directors as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Ermanno Olmi.

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