In the 1960s and 1970s, Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007) forged a cinematic language that reflected a changed, postwar world. His early successes, including "L'avventura" (1960) and "La notte" (1961), reshaped film drama by focusing so intently on characters (particularly couples) that plot was often a secondary concern. He also moved away from the social realism of his Italian peers. His most notable English-language films, from "Blow Up" (1966) to "Zabriskie Point" (1970), engage contemporary politics and modern social alienation.

"Michelangelo Antonioni: Interviews" collects a broad range of conversations with this iconoclastic filmmaker, including one, never before in print, with the editor of this volume. In interviews ranging from 1960 to 1983, Antonioni discusses his neuroses, his cinematic concerns, his roots in Italian neorealism, and the reasons he ultimately broke free of the style's constraints. He insists that the struggle to understand the inner lives of characters is the crucial issue that cinema must tackle.

Bert Cardullo is professor of American culture and literature at Ege University in Izmir, Turkey. Among other books, he is the author of "In Search of Cinema: Selected Writings on International Film Art" and "Vittorio De Sica: Director, Actor, Screenwriter."