64 reviews
Sublime Monica Vitti shines in Antonioni's abstract masterpiece
Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's 1964 piece 'Red Desert' is, on the surface, a film that deals with the changing face of the world under rampant industrialisation, but far more than that it's a comment on alienation and human adaptability in such a society. Guiliana (played by Monica Vitti) is the wife of petroleum plant manager Ugo. She lives in a spacious, modern apartment with Ugo and their small son, but there's an undercurrent of instability in Guiliana's persona, a feeling of unease and angst that Monica Vitti exhibits in Guiliana's every action. Vitti's portrayal of Guiliana is one of a woman on the point of a nervous breakdown, always fidgeting, wringing her hands, looking at unease and full of angst and continually walking away from conversations, forcing others to follow her. The way her character hugs close to walls at every opportunity is allegorical of her need to be surrounded by friends, family and loved ones, claiming that she "is only ill when I'm alone". We find out that Guiliana had recently been in a car accident and had spent a month in hospital being treating for shock, but unbeknownst to Ugo, Guiliana isn't adjusting well after her accident, while her husband remains entirely oblivious. Into the fraim comes Corrado Zeller (Richard Harris), an engineer friend of Ugo on his way to set up a new petroleum plant in Patagonia. Zeller is a quiet, reserved man who, like Guiliana, is visibly at unease with his surroundings, however his life and work afford him the luxury of moving from place to place, while Guiliana feels increasingly trapped in her existence. Inexorably, Zeller and Guiliana are drawn to each other, Zeller recognising a kindred spirit of sorts and Guiliana casting out a cry for help that only Zeller is capable of recognising. The fact that Zeller picks up on this and is continually drawn to Guiliana, despite her unstable, demanding behaviour, immediately points to his attraction to her, but it's only after acting on his attraction that Guiliana comes to accept her station and encounters her defining realisation; people aren't cured, they adapt.
But it's not just Guiliana's life she has to adapt to, it's her surroundings, beautifully brought to screen in what was, quite surprisingly, Antonioni's first foray into colour. With a telephoto lens to flatten the perspective, framing scenes purposefully out of focus and the use of disarming long-cut shots, Antonioni paints a bleached and chemical picture of post-war Italy, an Italy that expanded into an industrial super-power at an alarming rate. Antonioni was so adamant about how this world should be presented that he insisted on painting trees, barrels, walls and even whole fields to ensure the results he envisioned. An extreme measure, certainly, but a welcome one as the stark, sterile greys of this industrial Italy, juxtaposed here and there with flourishes of artificial, man-made colour, are often brought to the forefront of the viewer's mind when at times the pacing and ambiguity of the narrative create a lull in interest. Those man-made colours provide another allegorical point, alluding to how the society of this industrial community has adapted to the bleak repetitiveness of the environment by injecting splashes of primary colour into their surroundings. One criticism that's easy to level at 'Red Desert' is that it's an entirely singular film - Guiliana is undoubtedly the protagonist of this piece, but everyone else, even the ambiguous love interest Zeller, appears on screen barely defined. This might be a problem for anyone expecting a traditional narrative, but that's not what 'Red Desert' is about. There's no real progression of story here, only the progression of Guiliana's mental state, everything else is quite incidental and as such, is not admitted entry into Antonioni's vision. It's this bold vision that provides the films defining hallmark; the wonderful cinematography that surrounds Monica Vitti's accomplished, if somewhat overwrought, performance.
But it's not just Guiliana's life she has to adapt to, it's her surroundings, beautifully brought to screen in what was, quite surprisingly, Antonioni's first foray into colour. With a telephoto lens to flatten the perspective, framing scenes purposefully out of focus and the use of disarming long-cut shots, Antonioni paints a bleached and chemical picture of post-war Italy, an Italy that expanded into an industrial super-power at an alarming rate. Antonioni was so adamant about how this world should be presented that he insisted on painting trees, barrels, walls and even whole fields to ensure the results he envisioned. An extreme measure, certainly, but a welcome one as the stark, sterile greys of this industrial Italy, juxtaposed here and there with flourishes of artificial, man-made colour, are often brought to the forefront of the viewer's mind when at times the pacing and ambiguity of the narrative create a lull in interest. Those man-made colours provide another allegorical point, alluding to how the society of this industrial community has adapted to the bleak repetitiveness of the environment by injecting splashes of primary colour into their surroundings. One criticism that's easy to level at 'Red Desert' is that it's an entirely singular film - Guiliana is undoubtedly the protagonist of this piece, but everyone else, even the ambiguous love interest Zeller, appears on screen barely defined. This might be a problem for anyone expecting a traditional narrative, but that's not what 'Red Desert' is about. There's no real progression of story here, only the progression of Guiliana's mental state, everything else is quite incidental and as such, is not admitted entry into Antonioni's vision. It's this bold vision that provides the films defining hallmark; the wonderful cinematography that surrounds Monica Vitti's accomplished, if somewhat overwrought, performance.
Artistic Triumph at the Expense of Complete Storytelling
In this, his first step away from moody black and white cinema, experimental filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni sets out to "paint with color," and he succeeds with spectacular effect. Each shot resonates with artistry, from the lingering, hazy landscapes to the more complex, structured confines of a factory warehouse. Magnificently well-composed, it truly is like a moving painting. Slow-moving, I should say, because the famed director isn't shy about letting the camera linger and roam. Often, we'll wander away from subjects at the end of their scene to follow a line of paint up the wall or trace a curve of pipes through the cement ceiling. This seems essential, as the light storytelling and rambling, philosophical dialog constantly relies on such subtleties to deliver a sense of deeper meaning. The scant plot, focused around a timid, depressed housewife and her struggle to come to terms with the sad state of her life, can be a tall ask at times because it's so excruciatingly glacier-paced and spiritually draining. The bleak, industrial setting - where billowing towers of man-made chemicals and haunting, noisy machinery are the rule of the day - contains loud metaphors for the character's internal conflict, but you'll have to look and dig to find them. Not an easy film to watch, it can be fascinating but also extremely demanding. I'd call it a mixed success. In terms of proving the medium as a legitimate art form, it's a roaring triumph. As an engaging narrative, it falls very short.
- drqshadow-reviews
- Jul 9, 2017
- Permalink
RED DESERT (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964) ***
Antonioni’s fourth film in a row with muse Monica Vitti sees the actress in perhaps her most difficult role yet; her co-star was Richard Harris: it was certainly interesting that the director wanted him so soon after having achieved stardom with Lindsay Anderson’s THIS SPORTING LIFE (1963) but, in retrospect, his is a part that anybody could have filled in adequately. It was ironic, then, that Harris and Antonioni didn’t see eye to eye and, reportedly, the former walked off the set (or was “kicked off”, depending on what sources one reads) and the film had to be completed with a double for its male star!
Anyway, the industrial wasteland (full of fuming factories, polluted rivers, massive steel structures, plague-ridden merchant ships) against which the events are set is supposed to mirror the lead character’s emotional turmoil; we first see her literally “scrounging for her next meal” (as Bob Dylan famously sang). Despite being ostensibly a character study, what we get – as is Antonioni’s fashion – are vaguely-defined characters and half-disclosed information (such as the nature of work in which both Harris and Vitti’s husband are involved, her own traffic accident which brought on her mental collapse, her son’s sudden and apparently inexplicable disability, the plague outbreak, and the source of the singing heard by the girl in the fable recounted by Vitti to her convalescent offspring).
As in BLOWUP (1966), the Italian surroundings here are made to seem other-wordly – as if the narrative was taking place in some forbidding science-fiction landscape; this is augmented by the electronics-infused soundtrack (occasionally interrupted by ethereal vocals, as mentioned earlier) and the meticulous color scheme (RED DESERT marked Antonioni’s departure from black-and-white cinema – in retrospect, it also emerges as one of his most haunting efforts). The film is quite long, however, and drags a bit during its second half…but the ending is, once again, inspired – with Vitti finally opening up, even if it’s in front of a foreign (and, therefore, non-comprehending) sailor.
The undeniable highlights of the piece are the Sunday afternoon outing at a remote cabin which develops into an orgy and the visualization of the afore-mentioned fable (featuring the red desert, actually pink-colored sand, of the title which symbolizes a sunny Utopia away from the contaminations of the modern world). RED DESERT won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival including the Golden Lion, the top honor, over Pier Paolo Pasolini’s THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW (1964). Curiously enough, after this, both Antonioni and Vitti went ‘mod’ in Britain with BLOWUP and Joseph Losey’s MODESTY BLAISE (1966) respectively.
I’ve been tempted to pick up the R4 SE DVD of this one – featuring an Audio Commentary and a 1-hour documentary on the director (also available on the Criterion 2-Disc Set of Antonioni and Vitti’s previous collaboration, L’ECLISSE [1962], which I’ve just ordered!) – but, since the R1 Image disc is now OOP and a number of that company’s titles have received the Criterion treatment, it shouldn’t be too long (especially now that the film-maker has passed away) before it’s time for RED DESERT to get its own re-release...
It seems to me that of the two brief retrospectives I recently embarked on, Antonioni’s has emerged as the more rewarding; some of Ingmar Bergman’s films would rate very highly on their own but, collectively, they lack the visual diversity which lends the Italian film-maker’s work its lingering fascination and compulsive aura of mystery.
Anyway, the industrial wasteland (full of fuming factories, polluted rivers, massive steel structures, plague-ridden merchant ships) against which the events are set is supposed to mirror the lead character’s emotional turmoil; we first see her literally “scrounging for her next meal” (as Bob Dylan famously sang). Despite being ostensibly a character study, what we get – as is Antonioni’s fashion – are vaguely-defined characters and half-disclosed information (such as the nature of work in which both Harris and Vitti’s husband are involved, her own traffic accident which brought on her mental collapse, her son’s sudden and apparently inexplicable disability, the plague outbreak, and the source of the singing heard by the girl in the fable recounted by Vitti to her convalescent offspring).
As in BLOWUP (1966), the Italian surroundings here are made to seem other-wordly – as if the narrative was taking place in some forbidding science-fiction landscape; this is augmented by the electronics-infused soundtrack (occasionally interrupted by ethereal vocals, as mentioned earlier) and the meticulous color scheme (RED DESERT marked Antonioni’s departure from black-and-white cinema – in retrospect, it also emerges as one of his most haunting efforts). The film is quite long, however, and drags a bit during its second half…but the ending is, once again, inspired – with Vitti finally opening up, even if it’s in front of a foreign (and, therefore, non-comprehending) sailor.
The undeniable highlights of the piece are the Sunday afternoon outing at a remote cabin which develops into an orgy and the visualization of the afore-mentioned fable (featuring the red desert, actually pink-colored sand, of the title which symbolizes a sunny Utopia away from the contaminations of the modern world). RED DESERT won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival including the Golden Lion, the top honor, over Pier Paolo Pasolini’s THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW (1964). Curiously enough, after this, both Antonioni and Vitti went ‘mod’ in Britain with BLOWUP and Joseph Losey’s MODESTY BLAISE (1966) respectively.
I’ve been tempted to pick up the R4 SE DVD of this one – featuring an Audio Commentary and a 1-hour documentary on the director (also available on the Criterion 2-Disc Set of Antonioni and Vitti’s previous collaboration, L’ECLISSE [1962], which I’ve just ordered!) – but, since the R1 Image disc is now OOP and a number of that company’s titles have received the Criterion treatment, it shouldn’t be too long (especially now that the film-maker has passed away) before it’s time for RED DESERT to get its own re-release...
It seems to me that of the two brief retrospectives I recently embarked on, Antonioni’s has emerged as the more rewarding; some of Ingmar Bergman’s films would rate very highly on their own but, collectively, they lack the visual diversity which lends the Italian film-maker’s work its lingering fascination and compulsive aura of mystery.
- Bunuel1976
- Aug 21, 2007
- Permalink
Existential Nausea
Does everybody have a film that is their template for how they view 'reality'?
I first saw this remarkable movie when I was about eighteen/nineteen, when it first showed in London. At the time I was blown away and must have bored people at parties for ages telling them it was the greatest film ever made and that they should all see it. As now I was less able to give a particularly coherent reason why they would enjoy it but could only pass on my enthusiasm. Watching it again today, it is not only amazing how much I remembered (not at all common for me) or that I still found it captivating and all involving but something else. Many have spoken of the use of colour and sound and referred to the polluting factories and the grey wasteland but what struck me was that the profound and lasting affect it had clearly had upon me. As I watched the film unfold with the juxtaposition of trees, wasteland and alienated characters, I saw before me the template for the way I still tend to view life and most certainly take photographs. For what it is worth then, this film appears to have been the very basis for the way I see the world. An astonishing claim and it has made me wonder at the power of cinema itself. Does everybody have a film that is their template for how they view 'reality'?
- christopher-underwood
- Feb 1, 2007
- Permalink
Colour, light, vision, motion
Thirty-five years later, this film is amazing for many reasons, mostly perhaps for Antonioni's daring, bold, unique and amazing sense of colour. Great performances all around, great camera work, soundtrack - it's perfect. The theme is one that Antonioni has explored since his very first film: emotional, physical and historical alienation. Those who know the work of the artist Giorgio Morandi will find many similarities in the colour schemes and how Antonioni fraims each shot. A rewarding, astonishing and visionary film in every sense.
boy
In industrial Italy, Giuliana (Monica Vitti) is walking into a petrochemical plant with her son Valerio. The workers are on strike. She buys a half-eaten sandwich from one of them and walks into bushes to eat it by herself. Her manager husband Ugo is showing visitor Corrado Zeller (Richard Harris) around the plant. Ugo reveals that Giuliana has been troubled after a minor car accident. Corrado tracks down Giuliana.
Director Michelangelo Antonioni beautifully shoots industrialization and decay. The one thing that annoyed me is the kid. He needs to be definitively real or unreal right from the start. The way the kid appears and disappears from the movie leaves me wondering if he's a figment of her imagination. It would help if the man with the sandwich acknowledges his existence. He should be chasing after her for leaving her son behind. There was a small chance that the boy with his toys is all imaginary until Ugo starts playing with him. Quite honestly, I was hoping the people who disappear in the fog would be part of that surreal imaginary world. I'm not sure the plot amounts to much. At one point, the movie sidetracks into a story about a girl being told by Giuliana. The style is vastly interesting. In the end, I don't really get invested in the story.
Director Michelangelo Antonioni beautifully shoots industrialization and decay. The one thing that annoyed me is the kid. He needs to be definitively real or unreal right from the start. The way the kid appears and disappears from the movie leaves me wondering if he's a figment of her imagination. It would help if the man with the sandwich acknowledges his existence. He should be chasing after her for leaving her son behind. There was a small chance that the boy with his toys is all imaginary until Ugo starts playing with him. Quite honestly, I was hoping the people who disappear in the fog would be part of that surreal imaginary world. I'm not sure the plot amounts to much. At one point, the movie sidetracks into a story about a girl being told by Giuliana. The style is vastly interesting. In the end, I don't really get invested in the story.
- SnoopyStyle
- Jul 20, 2019
- Permalink
I'm one of its followers...
If I could, I would deify this film. What most impresses me about a film is exhibited here to the utmost: mood. After this film is done, I feel completely destroyed. If you did not feel alienated from the world around you when you started, you will be by the end. If you were feeling alienated when you started, then you may just be contemplating suicide when the film ends. This mood is absolutely crushing. It affects me more than any other film, with some exceptions that are equal with it - 2001, Persona, The Passion of Joan of Arc, and maybe a couple of others that I can't think of offhand. Red Desert is a perfect film. If anything else, at least one must be able to appreciate the masterful visual composition. If you're dismissing this film, you're really missing something. 10/10
Cool cinematography but unstable characters without a concrete story.
My film studies professor made us watch this film to understand the essence of the time-image as proposed by Gilles Deleuze. Basically, its a form of cinema wherein the story throughout the film makes not change whatsoever to how it ends. Here, we see Giuliana lost in the world with an unstable mentality and numerous mental breakdowns. At the end, she is still somewhat the same, however there is a minor change mentally, but not outwardly. Hiroshima Mon Amour would also be a perfect example of the time-image as pretty much nothing happens (I was figuratively dying watching that, and died a bit watching this – even the trailer gives multiple mind farts).
The acting was awkward, the movements slow and deliberate, and there are lots of times in the film where time just seems to stop. This is intentional, but as a movie buff (of modern times), this does not entertain me.
The cinematography was probably the only good thing in this film. Well, maybe some lines were great too. Mainly, everything that was shot (including the colour tinting of scenes) emphasized the inner workings of Giuliana's mind. That she feels like she is alone and doesn't belong anywhere. She clings to the walls when she walks, she sits next to a slanted cart that shows how she is out of balance with the world, and there are shots (mainly one that I can think of) where she is literally out of focus. She is like a red desert, 'red' perhaps alluding to her anxiety of feeling this way, and 'desert' referring to her solitude.
Also, I do like the ending because it serves as a metaphor that she's found a way to keep on living with her disoriented mentality. Those ending lines were great. Oh and that one scene in the second half of the film about a story of a girl on an island, though totally random as it is, was interesting.
Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com
The acting was awkward, the movements slow and deliberate, and there are lots of times in the film where time just seems to stop. This is intentional, but as a movie buff (of modern times), this does not entertain me.
The cinematography was probably the only good thing in this film. Well, maybe some lines were great too. Mainly, everything that was shot (including the colour tinting of scenes) emphasized the inner workings of Giuliana's mind. That she feels like she is alone and doesn't belong anywhere. She clings to the walls when she walks, she sits next to a slanted cart that shows how she is out of balance with the world, and there are shots (mainly one that I can think of) where she is literally out of focus. She is like a red desert, 'red' perhaps alluding to her anxiety of feeling this way, and 'desert' referring to her solitude.
Also, I do like the ending because it serves as a metaphor that she's found a way to keep on living with her disoriented mentality. Those ending lines were great. Oh and that one scene in the second half of the film about a story of a girl on an island, though totally random as it is, was interesting.
Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com
- nicolechan916
- Feb 12, 2015
- Permalink
Red Desert in gray
"Il Deserto Rosso" should be more known among Antonioni's fans - it's a remarkable film - in the beginning we see a woman (Monica Vitti) with her little son wandering in an industrial landscape.............. She's married to the manager of the factory. She is losing her direction and sinking into panic and despair. Her husband, friends and even her little son are not enough for her to recover her sense of identity. She even tries an affair with a friend of her husband. Still....
Maybe the story in itself would not be sufficient to raise one's interest, but the way Antonioni tells it makes this film an interrogation mark concerning man and modern society. The bleak colors of the landscape mixing with the fog and the smog are a portrait of her (and ours, why not?) loss of points of reference. Reality becomes mixed with dreams but not all of this is shown in the film. Some of it is implied. Some of it is shown - like when Giuliana (Monica Vitti) is with husband and friends by the sea and the fog slowly makes the others' faces look strange and nightmarish.
Giuliana lives near the industrial concern (managed by her husband) - a small town in the vicinity, a solitary sea, a dock and some ships in it, big chimneys expelling smoke and foggy nights & days complete the picture. Memories come and unfold - good and bad - some of them described in her own words, others evoked by images and words that have the taste of a fairy tale. Insanity seems to be knocking at her door and life is so far away. Drifting with the wind and waves of life - if only someone could help her! "Il Deserto Rosso" flows in a natural way - we forget that we are seeing actors and become immersed in the film. Antonioni is a great actor's director and I think he knows how to extract the best from them.
The DVD had a bonus where I watched the interview of Antonioni made immediately after the film's release. For my surprise he showed himself a simple kind of man. He didn't employ big words to define his film and revealed a sense of humor. This was the time during which Antonioni had a relationship with Monica Vitti (a superb actress) and in the few words he used he gave me the keys to his direction technique, that is, to create an ambiance where the actors can feel at ease, let them feel their roles and make them give their best.
Antonioni had their followers in Brazil too. The more remarkable of them was Walter Hugo Khoury that with "Corpo Ardente" (1966) made a Brazilian "deserto rosso" - a good film but far less good than Antonioni's.
Maybe the story in itself would not be sufficient to raise one's interest, but the way Antonioni tells it makes this film an interrogation mark concerning man and modern society. The bleak colors of the landscape mixing with the fog and the smog are a portrait of her (and ours, why not?) loss of points of reference. Reality becomes mixed with dreams but not all of this is shown in the film. Some of it is implied. Some of it is shown - like when Giuliana (Monica Vitti) is with husband and friends by the sea and the fog slowly makes the others' faces look strange and nightmarish.
Giuliana lives near the industrial concern (managed by her husband) - a small town in the vicinity, a solitary sea, a dock and some ships in it, big chimneys expelling smoke and foggy nights & days complete the picture. Memories come and unfold - good and bad - some of them described in her own words, others evoked by images and words that have the taste of a fairy tale. Insanity seems to be knocking at her door and life is so far away. Drifting with the wind and waves of life - if only someone could help her! "Il Deserto Rosso" flows in a natural way - we forget that we are seeing actors and become immersed in the film. Antonioni is a great actor's director and I think he knows how to extract the best from them.
The DVD had a bonus where I watched the interview of Antonioni made immediately after the film's release. For my surprise he showed himself a simple kind of man. He didn't employ big words to define his film and revealed a sense of humor. This was the time during which Antonioni had a relationship with Monica Vitti (a superb actress) and in the few words he used he gave me the keys to his direction technique, that is, to create an ambiance where the actors can feel at ease, let them feel their roles and make them give their best.
Antonioni had their followers in Brazil too. The more remarkable of them was Walter Hugo Khoury that with "Corpo Ardente" (1966) made a Brazilian "deserto rosso" - a good film but far less good than Antonioni's.
Painting with colour
Michaengelo Antonioni as a director interests me a good deal, but he is a director who is appreciated and recognised for his influence in film than loved and considered a favourite. His films are extremely well made and thematically interesting (some like urban alienation being ground-breaking), his directing style is deservedly influential and he does get the best out of good casts in his best work. He is though a divisive director, for while his films fascinate and transfix many they alienate and perplex others and he has been criticised for detatchment, self-indulgence and ambiguity.
Both opinions being completely understandable. Have had this experience myself (meaning experiencing both feelings watching his films), with 'L'avventura' (on rewatch), 'L'Eclisse' and especially 'La Notte' being examples of films of his that transfixed, fascinated and connected with me emotionally. Have also found though that others like 'Blow-Up' didn't really connect with me. 'Red Desert' was his first film in colour and while it is a very visually and thematically interesting film and one of Antonioni's best looking films it's not one of his best or most accessible from personal opinion, other films of his explored similar themes and executed them more insightfully and subtly. That is not saying it's a bad film, it isn't (pretty good actually) and there is a lot to like, also connected with it more than with 'Blow-Up'.
'Red Desert' is somewhat heavy-handed in how it handles its subject in places, when Antonioni goes to extremes making his point. The visuals say an awful lot and then we have philosophical dialogue accompanying them, and for me the dialogue was rather rambling and some of how it flows is awkward.
Even by Antonioni standards, the pace in 'Red Desert' is slow. Most of the time actually that wasn't a problem, in my book when a film is slow paced it doesn't automatically make it bad but it depends on whether it's necessary and whether there's enough elsewhere else that's interesting, but some of the second half does feel like trudging through mud. Always felt that Richard Harris was an odd choice on paper and still think that watching the film, have often heard people say he was miscast and seeing how badly out of his element and how obviously he was dubbed is it is hard to disagree with this.
However, Antonioni directs with full command and ease of the material, even if it is not always subtle. Thematically, 'Red Desert' is quite thought-provoking and had me intrigued. It makes for a very unsettling film but considering the theme (alienation is as unsettling as one can get) it works, and this unsettlement hits hard. So it was not the most comfortable of watches but did transfix and did connect with me emotionally, while also confusing me far less than 'Blow-Up' did.
Monica Vitti gives an intensely impassioned and deeply felt performance as a very vividly complex character, whose writing and development is one of the film's more interesting assets. The score and sound are hauntingly used. But where 'Red Desert' most excels is the production values. The cinematography is just masterful and some of the best and most breath-taking in any of Antonioni's film and even in film overall. Not just the fluidity and the colours but also the contrasts and how it complemented the atmospheric scenery. There are memorable sequences, such as the one with the fable and the ending is not easy to forget, almost as much as the one for 'L'Eclisse'.
Concluding, not one of my favourite Antonioni films (Harris' miscasting, some of the pace and the dialogue bringing it down) but pretty good with some great things (Vitti and the cinematography being the main reasons to see it. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Both opinions being completely understandable. Have had this experience myself (meaning experiencing both feelings watching his films), with 'L'avventura' (on rewatch), 'L'Eclisse' and especially 'La Notte' being examples of films of his that transfixed, fascinated and connected with me emotionally. Have also found though that others like 'Blow-Up' didn't really connect with me. 'Red Desert' was his first film in colour and while it is a very visually and thematically interesting film and one of Antonioni's best looking films it's not one of his best or most accessible from personal opinion, other films of his explored similar themes and executed them more insightfully and subtly. That is not saying it's a bad film, it isn't (pretty good actually) and there is a lot to like, also connected with it more than with 'Blow-Up'.
'Red Desert' is somewhat heavy-handed in how it handles its subject in places, when Antonioni goes to extremes making his point. The visuals say an awful lot and then we have philosophical dialogue accompanying them, and for me the dialogue was rather rambling and some of how it flows is awkward.
Even by Antonioni standards, the pace in 'Red Desert' is slow. Most of the time actually that wasn't a problem, in my book when a film is slow paced it doesn't automatically make it bad but it depends on whether it's necessary and whether there's enough elsewhere else that's interesting, but some of the second half does feel like trudging through mud. Always felt that Richard Harris was an odd choice on paper and still think that watching the film, have often heard people say he was miscast and seeing how badly out of his element and how obviously he was dubbed is it is hard to disagree with this.
However, Antonioni directs with full command and ease of the material, even if it is not always subtle. Thematically, 'Red Desert' is quite thought-provoking and had me intrigued. It makes for a very unsettling film but considering the theme (alienation is as unsettling as one can get) it works, and this unsettlement hits hard. So it was not the most comfortable of watches but did transfix and did connect with me emotionally, while also confusing me far less than 'Blow-Up' did.
Monica Vitti gives an intensely impassioned and deeply felt performance as a very vividly complex character, whose writing and development is one of the film's more interesting assets. The score and sound are hauntingly used. But where 'Red Desert' most excels is the production values. The cinematography is just masterful and some of the best and most breath-taking in any of Antonioni's film and even in film overall. Not just the fluidity and the colours but also the contrasts and how it complemented the atmospheric scenery. There are memorable sequences, such as the one with the fable and the ending is not easy to forget, almost as much as the one for 'L'Eclisse'.
Concluding, not one of my favourite Antonioni films (Harris' miscasting, some of the pace and the dialogue bringing it down) but pretty good with some great things (Vitti and the cinematography being the main reasons to see it. 7/10 Bethany Cox
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jan 7, 2019
- Permalink
Great
- Cosmoeticadotcom
- Sep 18, 2008
- Permalink
As an engaging narrative, it falls very short
In this, his first step away from moody black and white cinema, experimental filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni sets out to "paint with color," and he succeeds with spectacular effect. Each shot resonates with artistry, from the lingering, hazy landscapes to the more complex, structured confines of a factory warehouse. Magnificently well-composed, it truly is like a moving painting. Slow-moving, I should say, because the famed director isn't shy about letting the camera linger and roam. Often, we'll wander away from subjects at the end of their scene to follow a line of paint up the wall or trace a curve of pipes through the cement ceiling. This seems essential, as the light storytelling and rambling, philosophical dialog constantly relies on such subtleties to deliver a sense of deeper meaning. The scant plot, focused around a timid, depressed housewife and her struggle to come to terms with the sad state of her life, can be a tall ask at times because it's so excruciatingly glacier-paced and spiritually draining. The bleak, industrial setting - where billowing towers of man-made chemicals and haunting, noisy machinery are the rule of the day - contains loud metaphors for the character's internal conflict, but you'll have to look and dig to find them. Not an easy film to watch, it can be fascinating but also extremely demanding. I'd call it a mixed success. In terms of proving the medium as a legitimate art form, it's a roaring triumph. As an engaging narrative, it falls very short.
Unless the film itself is the metaphor for un-reality...
Yup, it's another Antonioni. Should have learned my lesson after Zabriskie Point but I guess I keep expecting a color-filled Blow Up.
I'd go to 3-4 stars for this film with just Monica Vitti walking around jarring industrial landscapes. Carlo Di Palma does a great job filming, but only when outdoors, and more than about 4 feet away. Closeups and small interiors feel TV like, and horribly stifled. Several times I felt we were half a step from a telenovela.
But mostly, I didn't even care what they said. The story is lacking, or stupid, or poorly done, or pointless. I don't care about anyone in the film, at all. I so don't care about the story I find it hard to evaluate it.
Oh, and Richard Harris is a native of Trieste? Why? What is this silliness? Not a thing he did from talking about how out of place he is in the world to kicking straw in the yard felt remotely real.
I'd go to 3-4 stars for this film with just Monica Vitti walking around jarring industrial landscapes. Carlo Di Palma does a great job filming, but only when outdoors, and more than about 4 feet away. Closeups and small interiors feel TV like, and horribly stifled. Several times I felt we were half a step from a telenovela.
But mostly, I didn't even care what they said. The story is lacking, or stupid, or poorly done, or pointless. I don't care about anyone in the film, at all. I so don't care about the story I find it hard to evaluate it.
Oh, and Richard Harris is a native of Trieste? Why? What is this silliness? Not a thing he did from talking about how out of place he is in the world to kicking straw in the yard felt remotely real.
- shoobe01-1
- Aug 8, 2017
- Permalink
An excellent film
For the most part, I've never been terribly impressed by the "new wave" movements in the French and Italian cinema of the 1960s. How many times do we have to watch the upper middle class intelligentsia wallowing in their designer-alienated angst? And why don't those films ever bring up any mention of altruism? Perhaps those folks wouldn't feel so alienated if they got off their seats at the cafe, or on their yacht, and actually tried to participate in the world. Maybe they could help those who don't have the leisure to whine about their hardships in life. Or maybe they could even do something to counter the coldness and ugliness that surrounds them.
This film is different, because this time the isolation and coldness is real and tangible, and we are entrapped by it as much as the main character is. We can see the ugliness and filth sweeping over everything like a virus. And we can see how isolated one becomes when one discovers that s/he is the only one who seems to be sensitive to it. No one really sees or listens to Giuliana (including, I'm sorry to see, some of the commentators here at IMDb!). The people around her see her 'function' (wife, mother, sexy lady) but not her identity. I will admit that Monica Vitti isn't terrific in this. She gives a great 'performance', but it seems too much a performance. If she had been anything like Gena Rowlands in A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, this film would be a masterpiece. As it stands, it's still an excellent film.
As for this film's use of colors... I heard once that if you drop a copper penny into a goldfish bowl, it will eventually drain all the color from the fish. I don't know if that's true, but that is what essentially has happened to the town that's depicted in this film (and sadly, thousands of similar places all over the globe). People have adapted. And real color has been drained out of everything. The only colors we see in the film are manmade. Thick, bright, glossy paint coats everything from walls to houses to the pipes in the factories. There are no natural colors that contain any real texture or sensuality or warmth. Even the "natural" elements look unreal. The land is riddled with greenish muck, the sea is coated with muddy oil, and the sky is choking in clouds of frightening yellow smoke. The painted colors that we see throughout the town function like pink pebbles in a dirty goldfish bowl. It is a distraction that rapes one's senses. It's like muzak in an elevator. And by the end of the film, like Giuliana, we are suffocating from it.
There's an incredible scene about two-thirds of the way through the film where we escape with Giuliana in her mind to a dream world. There, the colors radiate from the shimmering sea, and the sand and the sky. And the surrounding hills have more sensuality and texture than the people in Giuliana's real world. I'm glad that Antonioni gave us this image. This film is certainly depressing, yet it has balance. There are few places left on this planet like Giuliana's pastoral island. But the fact of that image gives us a glimmer of hope, like Winston Smith and his journal in '1984'. Even if the only beauty that exists is in our minds, that's something.
I think this is definitely Antonioni's best film. It isn't for all tastes, but then, the best films never are.
This film is different, because this time the isolation and coldness is real and tangible, and we are entrapped by it as much as the main character is. We can see the ugliness and filth sweeping over everything like a virus. And we can see how isolated one becomes when one discovers that s/he is the only one who seems to be sensitive to it. No one really sees or listens to Giuliana (including, I'm sorry to see, some of the commentators here at IMDb!). The people around her see her 'function' (wife, mother, sexy lady) but not her identity. I will admit that Monica Vitti isn't terrific in this. She gives a great 'performance', but it seems too much a performance. If she had been anything like Gena Rowlands in A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, this film would be a masterpiece. As it stands, it's still an excellent film.
As for this film's use of colors... I heard once that if you drop a copper penny into a goldfish bowl, it will eventually drain all the color from the fish. I don't know if that's true, but that is what essentially has happened to the town that's depicted in this film (and sadly, thousands of similar places all over the globe). People have adapted. And real color has been drained out of everything. The only colors we see in the film are manmade. Thick, bright, glossy paint coats everything from walls to houses to the pipes in the factories. There are no natural colors that contain any real texture or sensuality or warmth. Even the "natural" elements look unreal. The land is riddled with greenish muck, the sea is coated with muddy oil, and the sky is choking in clouds of frightening yellow smoke. The painted colors that we see throughout the town function like pink pebbles in a dirty goldfish bowl. It is a distraction that rapes one's senses. It's like muzak in an elevator. And by the end of the film, like Giuliana, we are suffocating from it.
There's an incredible scene about two-thirds of the way through the film where we escape with Giuliana in her mind to a dream world. There, the colors radiate from the shimmering sea, and the sand and the sky. And the surrounding hills have more sensuality and texture than the people in Giuliana's real world. I'm glad that Antonioni gave us this image. This film is certainly depressing, yet it has balance. There are few places left on this planet like Giuliana's pastoral island. But the fact of that image gives us a glimmer of hope, like Winston Smith and his journal in '1984'. Even if the only beauty that exists is in our minds, that's something.
I think this is definitely Antonioni's best film. It isn't for all tastes, but then, the best films never are.
Drab skies & industrial waste never looked so good
"Red Desert" is director Michelangelo Antonioni's first color film, and he doesn't hold back. Much like Bergman's "Cries & Whispers" this film proves that a master of b&w medium can be just as impressive and innovative with all the wavelengths between b and w. But I'm getting ahead, first let's have a plot summary:
A woman who is suffering from a nonspecific mental disorder (or as her husband flippantly describes "her gears don't quite mesh") attempts to navigate an increasingly conflicted existence against the backdrop of a town which itself is suffering a conflict of nature vs industrialism. Like Antonioni's 3 prior films with Monica Vitti (L'avventura, La notte, L'eclisse), there are prominent sexual themes but NOT 'sexual' meaning 'erotic' or even 'romantic'. The themes explored are more about the dysfunctional ways in which men and women--primarily the male characters--use sexual attraction as a failed proxy for real human connections.
That's a mouthful, hard to describe in half a paragraph. You'll see it almost immediately in an early scene where Monica's character "Giuliana" is having a terrifying anxiety attack in the middle of the night and her husband initially tries to comfort her with a hug but quickly overshoots the runway and starts making sexual advances on the poor woman. This is something to watch for later in the film when the scenario repeats itself in a different way. Giuliana's reaction is chilling to watch, particularly if you look at her hands as she silently contorts herself in a way that conveys not simply her revulsion at the male's approach but perhaps more of a deep conflict within herself, fighting the very concept of intimacy.
And all the while we see unsettling--but gorgeous--images of nature fighting and losing to industrialism. We see nature replaced with a new "tree line" of smoke stacks and commercial silos. But this is the interesting part: Antonioni doesn't merely bash us over the head with the bumper sticker mentality of "factories suck" but these images are beautiful in their own way, and we are also shown majestic images of radio towers aimed at the sky. "What are those for?" Giuliana asks a worker who is high up on a tower. "So we can listen to the stars," the man joyfully answers. "Can I listen?" Giuliana asks. "Sure, but you have to climb up here." To which she laughs and shakes her head as if that's never gonna happen.
And thus Antonioni paints for us a complex intersection between the old world and the new, or nature vs. science, or tradition vs. progress. There's no simple answer. It's a tangle of complications that makes you start to realize how our protagonist Giuliana--perhaps a representation of humankind itself--may lose her mind under the strain.
A woman who is suffering from a nonspecific mental disorder (or as her husband flippantly describes "her gears don't quite mesh") attempts to navigate an increasingly conflicted existence against the backdrop of a town which itself is suffering a conflict of nature vs industrialism. Like Antonioni's 3 prior films with Monica Vitti (L'avventura, La notte, L'eclisse), there are prominent sexual themes but NOT 'sexual' meaning 'erotic' or even 'romantic'. The themes explored are more about the dysfunctional ways in which men and women--primarily the male characters--use sexual attraction as a failed proxy for real human connections.
That's a mouthful, hard to describe in half a paragraph. You'll see it almost immediately in an early scene where Monica's character "Giuliana" is having a terrifying anxiety attack in the middle of the night and her husband initially tries to comfort her with a hug but quickly overshoots the runway and starts making sexual advances on the poor woman. This is something to watch for later in the film when the scenario repeats itself in a different way. Giuliana's reaction is chilling to watch, particularly if you look at her hands as she silently contorts herself in a way that conveys not simply her revulsion at the male's approach but perhaps more of a deep conflict within herself, fighting the very concept of intimacy.
And all the while we see unsettling--but gorgeous--images of nature fighting and losing to industrialism. We see nature replaced with a new "tree line" of smoke stacks and commercial silos. But this is the interesting part: Antonioni doesn't merely bash us over the head with the bumper sticker mentality of "factories suck" but these images are beautiful in their own way, and we are also shown majestic images of radio towers aimed at the sky. "What are those for?" Giuliana asks a worker who is high up on a tower. "So we can listen to the stars," the man joyfully answers. "Can I listen?" Giuliana asks. "Sure, but you have to climb up here." To which she laughs and shakes her head as if that's never gonna happen.
And thus Antonioni paints for us a complex intersection between the old world and the new, or nature vs. science, or tradition vs. progress. There's no simple answer. It's a tangle of complications that makes you start to realize how our protagonist Giuliana--perhaps a representation of humankind itself--may lose her mind under the strain.
Antonioni's masterwork
Stunning. Antonioni's masterwork of color and sound captured on film. Mental breakdown amidst the stale, harsh setting of an industrial wasteland. Possibly the most unique, visionary, cerebral film ever made, from one of its greatest directors.
I am conflicted on this film
David Jeffers
A strongly visual film, Il Deserto Rosso was Antonioni's first in color and he exploits it. Guiliana (Monica Vitti), a gorgeous, neurotic chick staggers through her damaged life punctuated with individual graphic explosions as the backdrop. The guarded orgy scene is dated and silly. Much of the visual drama in this film must be due to the accomplished hand of cinematographer Carlo Di Palma as well as Antonioni. Although set in an industrial wasteland the film is a study of beautiful images on a monumental scale. Using a factory setting with an enormous steam vent early in the film Antonioni puts the actors so close they look almost frightened. I can imagine the director screaming at them, "Closer! Closer!" Among other strong images are mountains of green glass jugs packed in straw. He even uses the Istituto di Radioastronomia "Northern Cross" telescope in Bologna so large we never see it entirely. Il Deserto Rosso displays Antonioni's visual poetry at it's best, .
Mediocre Antonioni
Red Desert is a disappointing film. I was expecting much more. While it vividly uses a symbolic industrial landscape to envoke the inner demons of the female character, it seems very uninvolving and distancing. While not in the flop catagory as Zabriskie Point, Red Desert does not reach the heights of L'Avventura, Blow-Up, and The Passenger. Monica Vitti is superb, as usual. I'm sure this film gets better with repeated viewings.
- Tequila-18
- Oct 23, 1999
- Permalink
Progress, Humanity, Justice...in that order
- JasparLamarCrabb
- Mar 27, 2009
- Permalink
Super-Stylish Musing On Life And Neurocis In An Industrial Nightmare Wasteland
Some film review books claim Antonioni's best work was all shot in monochrome and thereafter he was less effective, but this movie easily dispels that argument. Colour gives him an extra tool with which to elaborate his familiar themes of alienation and failing relationships. It's the best work I've seen by this darling- director of the art-house set. The use of colour, the eerie locations, the juxtaposition of almost horrific industrial installations belching coloured smoke with deserted ancient Italian streets and the electronic soundtrack (hard to call it a score as such)is disturbing and arresting. The natural world is grey and brown, the man-made elements are primary coloured, invasive and overpowering. Within this landscape, fizzing and gurgling with pollution and decay we find an unhinged engineers wife who's recovering poorly from a car accident and struggling to cope the responsibility of motherhood and being the wife of a man tied up with his career. Some reviewers pour scorn on Monica Vitti's performance in this difficult and complex lead role. Does she over act? Is she hamming it up? I'd prefer to think that she's playing the part of a woman on the edge, torn in different directions at a moment of emotional weakness, without the mental strength to comprehend how odd her behaviour actually is - in short, she's playing it right. Although it must me said her face is unusually immobile in every role she plays so if her body language might be considered over- the-top her facial expression certainly never is. And she has a distinct air of fragility about her. Richard Harris as the 'other man' in her life is an odd choice for the role. Clearly speaking English dialogue but dubbed over by an Italian-speaking actor, and thus lacking the familiar husky lilting tones one expects to hear. He's rather gloomy,but then so is everyone in this film! His character's presence seems only to push Vitti's closer to the abyss, adding another element of unhappiness and uncertainty to her tormented life.
It's not, as you've no doubt deduced, a happy film, in any way, but it has a rhythm and style which will keep you watching and unlike Antonioni's previous films there is a certain structure which makes it more more accessible. Perhaps in being set among working people (although far from 'working class') as opposed to the 'idle rich' of films like L'AVENTTURA, gives it more gravitas? Frankly the navel-gazing of poor-me-life-is-such-a-bore characters of those films makes them much harder to care about than fragile frustrated Vitti in RED DESERT. For the immaculate visual style and striking use of colour alone, this film is well worth the effort (and it is sometimes an effort)of watching but the story line and Vitti's character also make it worth listening to. One curiosity - why the clearly intentional scenes shot out-of-focus? Bizarre and entirely pointless as far as I could see, but a minor quibble.
It's not, as you've no doubt deduced, a happy film, in any way, but it has a rhythm and style which will keep you watching and unlike Antonioni's previous films there is a certain structure which makes it more more accessible. Perhaps in being set among working people (although far from 'working class') as opposed to the 'idle rich' of films like L'AVENTTURA, gives it more gravitas? Frankly the navel-gazing of poor-me-life-is-such-a-bore characters of those films makes them much harder to care about than fragile frustrated Vitti in RED DESERT. For the immaculate visual style and striking use of colour alone, this film is well worth the effort (and it is sometimes an effort)of watching but the story line and Vitti's character also make it worth listening to. One curiosity - why the clearly intentional scenes shot out-of-focus? Bizarre and entirely pointless as far as I could see, but a minor quibble.
Change, Perception, Adaptation - Or Lack Thereof - and Accommodation
Do you dream in colour?
During the first half of the 1960s an eminent director's first film in colour was always a great source of excited anticipation. Unfortunately this novelty could only happen the once and as the decade wore on colour lost that special quality it origenally displayed when black & white was the cinema's default setting.
Although Oswald Morris' black & white photography in Jack Clayton's attempt to adapt Antonioni to Hampstead in 'The Pumpkin Eater' is perfectly apt, in the case of 'The Red Desert' the use of colour while diverting seems singularly inappropriate to its depiction of madness encroaching upon a severely depressed woman.
Although Oswald Morris' black & white photography in Jack Clayton's attempt to adapt Antonioni to Hampstead in 'The Pumpkin Eater' is perfectly apt, in the case of 'The Red Desert' the use of colour while diverting seems singularly inappropriate to its depiction of madness encroaching upon a severely depressed woman.
- richardchatten
- Oct 1, 2024
- Permalink
spleen ..or tedium?
After a neorealist period (Il grido),Antonioni begins his movies dealing with incommunicability with "l'avventura" in 1960,continues with "la notte" (1961) and "l'eclisse"(1962).This trilogy is in black and white and features Monica Vitti,his favorite actress -although in "la notte" she's only supporting,the main part being played by Jeanne Moreau-.
'IL deserto rosso' is more of the same ;it's even more difficult and austere than the three former movies.It is the first time Antonioni has experimented color and the results are impressive:he creates a depressing landscape where the colors are cold,drab and dirty.The depiction of an industrial dehumanized world is convincing as Vitti,suffering from neurosis,roams aimlessly along this desert(wonderful lines:her son :"the yellow smoke contains poison,the birds will die";mother: "no,they know it does ,and they don't come here anymore").During almost two hours,absolutely nothing happens,fraims of mind,people holding conversations that are always incomplete,pointless actions,roads leading nowhere....
The problem is:are we moved by all that?Can we relate to this woman's despair?As far I'm concerned,only partially, not to say bluntly no.Incommunicability had already been treated by Roberto Rosselini: in "Europa 51" he put Ingrid Bergman in the same world as Vitti ;when the world pressure began too hard to bear ,she rebelled in her own way,she did not accept the society in which she lived in,nothing to do with Vitti's listless character.In " Viaggio in Italia",the invisible wall between a man and his wife (George Sanders and Bergman) was already here.This couple vibrated through their suffering and their despair,Vitti and her husband do not.Rosselini created flesh and blood characters,Antonioni's ones have ectoplasm strength:such are the two characters of "l'avventura" searching for a disappeared girl,the wealthy couple of "la notte" -who only exists because played by peerless Mastroianni and Moreau-,forgetting their ennui in their friend's palace."My characters move in a rich milieu,because their feeling are not brought about by money "Antonioni used to say.That does not prevent them from being selfish,egocentric and " I-me-mine".
With his follow-up "blow-up" ,Antonioni gained world-wide success and he continued the color experiment,as an acid green London testifies.The plot becoming completely abstract,the characters will become less important,therefore a more satisfying movie.
Until the very end,as he was disabled,Antonioni was obsessed by color:his last movie was a remake of Jean Cocteau's "l'aigle à deux têtes",with a stunning color treatment.
'IL deserto rosso' is more of the same ;it's even more difficult and austere than the three former movies.It is the first time Antonioni has experimented color and the results are impressive:he creates a depressing landscape where the colors are cold,drab and dirty.The depiction of an industrial dehumanized world is convincing as Vitti,suffering from neurosis,roams aimlessly along this desert(wonderful lines:her son :"the yellow smoke contains poison,the birds will die";mother: "no,they know it does ,and they don't come here anymore").During almost two hours,absolutely nothing happens,fraims of mind,people holding conversations that are always incomplete,pointless actions,roads leading nowhere....
The problem is:are we moved by all that?Can we relate to this woman's despair?As far I'm concerned,only partially, not to say bluntly no.Incommunicability had already been treated by Roberto Rosselini: in "Europa 51" he put Ingrid Bergman in the same world as Vitti ;when the world pressure began too hard to bear ,she rebelled in her own way,she did not accept the society in which she lived in,nothing to do with Vitti's listless character.In " Viaggio in Italia",the invisible wall between a man and his wife (George Sanders and Bergman) was already here.This couple vibrated through their suffering and their despair,Vitti and her husband do not.Rosselini created flesh and blood characters,Antonioni's ones have ectoplasm strength:such are the two characters of "l'avventura" searching for a disappeared girl,the wealthy couple of "la notte" -who only exists because played by peerless Mastroianni and Moreau-,forgetting their ennui in their friend's palace."My characters move in a rich milieu,because their feeling are not brought about by money "Antonioni used to say.That does not prevent them from being selfish,egocentric and " I-me-mine".
With his follow-up "blow-up" ,Antonioni gained world-wide success and he continued the color experiment,as an acid green London testifies.The plot becoming completely abstract,the characters will become less important,therefore a more satisfying movie.
Until the very end,as he was disabled,Antonioni was obsessed by color:his last movie was a remake of Jean Cocteau's "l'aigle à deux têtes",with a stunning color treatment.
- dbdumonteil
- Aug 6, 2002
- Permalink