#522: ANTONIONI, Michelangelo: Red Desert (1964)
ANTONIONI, Michelangelo (Italy)
Red Desert [1964]
Spine #522
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960s panoramas of contemporary alienation were decade-defining artistic events, and Red Desert, his first color film, is perhaps his most epochal. This provocative look at the spiritual desolation of the technological age — about a disaffected woman, brilliantly portrayed by Antonioni muse Monica Vitti, wandering through a bleak, industrial landscape beset by power plants and environmental toxins, and tentatively flirting with her husband's coworker, played by Richard Harris — continues to keep viewers spellbound. With one startling, painterly composition after another — of abandoned fishing cottages, electrical towers, looming docked ships — Red Desert creates a nearly apocalyptic image of its time, and confirms Antonioni a cinema's preeminent poet of the modern age.
117 minutes
Color
Color
Monaural
in Italian
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2010
Director/Writers
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni and Tonino Guerra.
Antonioni was 52 when he directed Red Desert.
Other Antonioni films in the Collection:
#817: Le Amiche (1955)
#98: L'Avventura (1960)
#678: La Notte (1961)
#278: L'Eclisse (1962)
#865: Blow-Up (1966)
#585: Identification Of A Woman (1982)
The Film
Other Antonioni films in the Collection:
#817: Le Amiche (1955)
#98: L'Avventura (1960)
#678: La Notte (1961)
#278: L'Eclisse (1962)
#865: Blow-Up (1966)
#585: Identification Of A Woman (1982)
The Film
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Forty-four page booklet featuring an essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu, a reprinted interview with Antonioni conducted by Jean-Luc Godard, and writings by Antonioni by on Gente del Po and N.U.
Commentary
By Italian film scholar David Forgacs.
Archival interviews
60
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Forty-four page booklet featuring an essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu, a reprinted interview with Antonioni conducted by Jean-Luc Godard, and writings by Antonioni by on Gente del Po and N.U.
Commentary
By Italian film scholar David Forgacs.
Archival interviews
With director Antonioni and actress Vitti.
Two short documentaries
Two short documentaries
By Antonioni: Gente del Po, about a barge trip down the Po River, and N.U., about urban street cleaners.
Dailies
Dailies
From the original production.
Theatrical trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
Theatrical trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
Comments
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