Rent Red Desert (1964)

A Masterpiece (apologies;. do not like the term ... ) - Red Desert review by NW

Stunningly beautiful photography - the opening sequence alone, before anything happens, is breathtaking - even without Monica Vitti!

Antonioni and di Palma have clearly absorbed and extended the sort of lessons that Djiga Vertov offered in "Man with a Movie Camera", using industrial settings almost as living players, and they are able to add a masterly, spare, use of colour ... a rare enough gift in itself. They also have a story and, of course Monica Vitti.

There are few artists of any sort who can produce sheer beauty effortlessly from a blasted, poisoned industrial wasteland: That is what Antonion does: the condition of the wasteland is an echoing frame for the turmoil in Monica Vitti's head after her "accident" ... attempted suicide and breakdown. A pretty unappealing recipe for a film, one would think. Wrongly. This one is superb, and not only for the pictures.

I shall say nothing about the plot ... you can find all that in Wikipædia!

The film is flawed, of course - I felt that the plot was there for little more than two purposes: to support the pictures, showing just what Antonioni and di Palma could do with colour ... some of the pictures are clearly there for their own sakes alone ... and to provide a róle for a fine performance by Monica Vitti. What she undergoes may scarcely be a recommended course of treatment for nervous breakdown, but she gives it depth and variety, alive and amusing as well as distracted and sick. Her hair does not straggle all the time! As for the other players ... we get performances of sensitive exactitude - never a false note.

Seriously interesting thoughts about social and personal relations and political situations are presented ... but the story is ultimately subsidiary to the film in itself.

I was amused to find that while, as an english speaker, I often need sub-titles with American films; the italian dialogue in this film came over with beautiful clarity, even though I speak no Italian. You could almost learn the language from it.

There is a very good commentary - which I avoided seeing before writing this - by David Forgacs; he ventures further than I choose in interpreting symbolism and intentions, and gives very valuable background information. (No need to look for the symbolism – it sweeps over you!)

A troubled woman and some troublesome men - Red Desert review by RJ

Although this film is stunning to look at, it is, like the mind of the protagonist Giuliana, dissonant, disordered and disorienting.

Giuliana is struggling to 'reintegrate into reality' following a mental breakdown from which she has clearly not recovered despite having been released from hospital. Her husband Ugo's approach to her affliction appears to be to ignore it as much as possible and hope it goes away. Enter Corrado Zeller, a business associate of Ugo's, who is immediately drawn to Giuliana. This is partly because he regards himself as a fellow outsider, although he suffers from a far more common and manageable form of ennui, in contrast to the genuinely unstable Giuliana.

I think that Zeller is not, initially at least, cruel in his treatment of Giuliana, rather I think he is just careless. He does not seem to recognise the extent of her problems and therefore does not understand the potential consequences of becoming involved with her. Eventually, in a difficult scene to watch, he decides that the most appropriate course of action when confronted with a woman clearly suffering from extreme mental problems is to more or less force her to have sex with him. Maybe he even imagined his magical sexual powers would cure her (spoiler alert: they don't).

Interestingly, there is foreshadowing of this weary sexual acquiescence earlier in the film, when a group of friends appear to be on the verge of having an orgy, although it turns out to be mostly talk. A balding middle aged man with wandering hands focuses his attentions on one particular woman who, although apparently unreceptive to his advances, later admits to the man's wife that "he will have his way with me too, eventually".

Monica Vitti is convincing as a woman alienated from the landscape, from the people around her, from life itself. The polluted industrial landscape and haunting soundtrack convey Giuliana's sense of dislocation perfectly. Smoke and steam from the factories and melancholy fog rolling in off the sea suffocate the environment around her.

The ending has really stayed with me - Giuliana explains to her young son that the birds have learned to avoid flying through the toxic yellow smoke emitted from the factory chimneys so that they don't die. Maybe Giuliana is resolving that this is what she must do in order to survive - but when the toxicity is as ubiquitous as portrayed in this film, there is little hope that she will be able to do so.

Red Desert Green Coat - Red Desert review by RhysH

It takes a little while to realise this is Antonioni shooting in colour so bleak is the background, not until Monica Vitti appears in her green coat is the full range of the palette revealed.

Antonioni is obsessed with the industrial landscape which he imbues with an improbable beauty and obsessed with Monica Vitti's hair. I wonder if she had a stylist to give it that dishevelled beauty. Vitti's performance perfectly captures the woman on the edge.

Richard Harris gives a rather wooden performance. Maybe it was something to do with the dubbing into Italian which made him sound like an automaton.

Despite reservations it is an Antonioni masterpiece.