Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Red Desert (1964)


Red Desert / Il deserto rosso (1964)

Genre: Drama
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Monica Vitti, Richard Harris
Duration: 120 min.
Rating: 7.6/10

Summary:
Giuliana, an unhappy wife, suffers from an unnamed form of depression and malaise. Her quicksilver emotional shifts disturb everyone around her, but they, like she, pretend that nothing is truly wrong. British engineer Corrado Zeller seems to understand what Giuliana is really after in life, and he acts upon it by entering into an affair with the troubled woman. Giuliana eventually comes to terms with her physical and mental pain, but this hardly means that she's "cured" in the conventional sense. 


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For my 100th post, I've selected one of my favorite films of all time, the Italian classic Red Desert by Michelangelo Antonioni.  It was first premiered at the 1964 Venice Film Festival where it was awarded the Golden Lion for best film.  It is a melancholy story of alienation and spiritual desolation set in the industrial world.  This was Antonioni's fourth film in a row starring his muse, the stunningly beautiful Monica Vitti after the trilogy of The Adventure, La notte, and EclipseRed Desert was also the first film that Antonioni shot in color, using it to somehow find beauty in industrial landscapes.  The recently issued Criterion Blu-ray (as seen below), magnificently renders the vivid pastel palette of Antonioni's vision in all its intended glory.   









5 comments:

Smile said...

Gotta love Italian movies

Virginie Lavallée B said...

LOVE that movie. Congrats on your 100th post! I love following your blog :)

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Interesting. What class was it?

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Virginie!

The Angry Vegetarian said...

I've actually seen this! My professor in college showed this to us one day when we had nothing else to do. I actually liked it, others weren't too open to it (mainly because it was a foreign film). Idiots.

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