The Red Desert (Il deserto rosso)
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni and Tonino Guerra
1964/Italy/France
Film Duemila/Federiz/Francoriz Production
First viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Giuliana: There’s something terrible about reality and i don’t know what it is. No one will tell me.[/box]
For his first color film, Antonioni turns Italy into a colorless industrial wasteland matching his heroine’s fragile state of mind.
The story is set largely in and on the margins of bleak, polluted factories. Guliana’s (Monica Vitti) husband Ugo manages one of these. Early on, he tells colleague Corrado Zeller (Richard Harris) that she had a traffic accident in which she suffered minor physical injuries but mental shock that necessitated hospitalization for a month. She still has not fully recovered from her mental problems. Ugo is not really aware of the extent of Guliana’s malaise. Ugo and Guliano have a son, who is around five or six years old.
During the course of the story, we see Guliana try and fail to find some meaning in her life. Eventually, she has a brief affair with Corrado but that doesn’t help either. Still Antonioni gives us a glimmer of hope in the final moments when Guliana is able both to look at her environment and walk away from its poison.
I feel like I missed a lot on this first viewing. The film is so spectacular to look at and Vitti is so awesome, however, that I feel like I will give it another try at some point.
Well, that is not so far from my impression of the movie. This is a visual feast, but I felt I missed something. Certainly there was something I was not getting. If you feel smarter after a second viewing, do let me know.
Btw. did you know there is an entire series of these symphonic extravaganzas? I particularly liked A Fistful of dollars and Bladerunner.
Listened to Fistful of Dollars on your recommendation. Man that woman can really whistle! Kudos to the Danes!
This was my first Antonioni movie. I saw it on a double bill with L’avventura. I wasn’t impressed. However, I walked away with a HUGE screen crush on Monica Vitti that’s been with me ever since. (I highly recommend La ragazza con la pistola. I also love Modesty Blaise and it has a bit of a cult following … but I understand why people don’t like it.)
Over the years, Antonioni has grown on me, and I loved L’eclisse and La notte, both of which I’ve seen in the last two or three years. I’ve been meaning to give L’avventura and Red Desert another chance but I haven’t gotten around to it.
Antonioni’s movies slowly grow on me and it’s often only at the end that I begin to get the message. I think my favorite, maybe because it’s the one I’ve watched the most, is Blow Up.