“You ask what you should watch. I ask how I should live. It’s the same thing.“
Sometimes the best duos in film are lovers. It worked so well with Jean-Luc Godard and his muse Anna Karina. And roughly at the same time in Italy, we had Michelangelo Antonioni and his lover Monica Vitti, a breathtaking woman who shined so bright in his films, and for good reason. And in 1964 she made the film Red Desert, a stunning look at the industrialization that was occurring in Italy at the time and is Antonioni’s first color film, which he takes glorious advantage of.
Giuliana (Monica Vitti) is a young mother and wife who is recovering from a monthlong hospital stay due to an attempted suicide, which she somehow concealed from her husband Ugo (Carlo Chionetti), who is a hotshot engineer at the power plant. He doesn’t really care for...
Sometimes the best duos in film are lovers. It worked so well with Jean-Luc Godard and his muse Anna Karina. And roughly at the same time in Italy, we had Michelangelo Antonioni and his lover Monica Vitti, a breathtaking woman who shined so bright in his films, and for good reason. And in 1964 she made the film Red Desert, a stunning look at the industrialization that was occurring in Italy at the time and is Antonioni’s first color film, which he takes glorious advantage of.
Giuliana (Monica Vitti) is a young mother and wife who is recovering from a monthlong hospital stay due to an attempted suicide, which she somehow concealed from her husband Ugo (Carlo Chionetti), who is a hotshot engineer at the power plant. He doesn’t really care for...
- 9/5/2010
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
Red Desert Directed by: Michelangelo Antonioni Written by: Michelangelo Antonioni and Tonino Guerra Starring: Monica Vitti, Richard Harris, Carlo Chionetti Normally the idea of technique overshadowing character and story might be a bad thing, but Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert is probably better described as an 'environment piece' rather than 'character piece'. The characters are directly influenced and defined by their surroundings. Antonioni makes great use of colour -- this was his first step away from black and white -- and composition to create drab yet breathtaking landscapes in which to set his colourful characters against. The opening titles of Red Desert promises a pretty unique experience. Beautiful shots of factories are underscored by a strange electronic soundtrack, immediately establishing a thematic ambiguity. Is the film criticizing industry? If so, why present these factories in such an aesthetically pleasing nature? Normally it'd be safe to assume that a film with...
- 7/19/2010
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
Chicago – The Criterion Collection recently inducted the great Michelangelo Antonioni’s first color film into their esteemed catalog with a Blu-ray transfer that stands next to the best HD pictures of the year to date. This striking visual composition has never looked better and the film remains as mesmerizing as it was almost a half-century ago, arguably more so.
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Antonioni made several films about the influence of environment and “Red Desert” is easily one of his strongest examinations of the changing world and how we must live within it or suffer. Many have read the film as a condemnation of technology but Antonioni himself argued that the viewer should see beauty in his industrial landscapes and I think it’s easy to see the film as a commentary on the need to adapt in a changing world instead merely fighting it. The world may be more and more...
Blu-Ray Rating: 5.0/5.0
Antonioni made several films about the influence of environment and “Red Desert” is easily one of his strongest examinations of the changing world and how we must live within it or suffer. Many have read the film as a condemnation of technology but Antonioni himself argued that the viewer should see beauty in his industrial landscapes and I think it’s easy to see the film as a commentary on the need to adapt in a changing world instead merely fighting it. The world may be more and more...
- 6/28/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The opening credits, with the text excised and only the images held (except for the "Tintal" credit, which is inseparable from the image), from Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece Red Desert (1964), cinematography by Carlo Di Palma.
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Now available in a gorgeous edition from The Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray, and including two very early documentary shorts by Antonioni, N.U. (1948), on street cleaners, and the incomplete (due to production circumstances) poetic masterpiece, Gente del Po (1948).
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Now available in a gorgeous edition from The Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray, and including two very early documentary shorts by Antonioni, N.U. (1948), on street cleaners, and the incomplete (due to production circumstances) poetic masterpiece, Gente del Po (1948).
- 6/28/2010
- MUBI
Green Zone
Damon and Greengrass' Iraq war film was a big disappointment for me. You don't get to know a single character and the plot has no suspense since you already know how the whole Wmd situation ends.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesMatt Damon: Ready for ActionInside the Green Zone
The Last Station
I really enjoyed this indie about Leo Tolstoy's final days. James McAvoy is great in a role very similar to his in The Last King of Scotland.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesOuttakes
She's Out of My League
Looks decent and Apatow-regular Jay Baruchel always delivers.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesBlooper ReelDevon's Dating Show![Read More...]
Hung: The Complete First Season
I am a big fan of lead Thomas Jane and Alexendar Payne (Sideways, Election), who produces and directed the pilot, so I will have to check this out.
Extras include:
Three audio commentaries by series creators-executive producers Colette Burson and...
Damon and Greengrass' Iraq war film was a big disappointment for me. You don't get to know a single character and the plot has no suspense since you already know how the whole Wmd situation ends.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesMatt Damon: Ready for ActionInside the Green Zone
The Last Station
I really enjoyed this indie about Leo Tolstoy's final days. James McAvoy is great in a role very similar to his in The Last King of Scotland.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesOuttakes
She's Out of My League
Looks decent and Apatow-regular Jay Baruchel always delivers.
Extras include:
CommentaryDeleted ScenesBlooper ReelDevon's Dating Show![Read More...]
Hung: The Complete First Season
I am a big fan of lead Thomas Jane and Alexendar Payne (Sideways, Election), who produces and directed the pilot, so I will have to check this out.
Extras include:
Three audio commentaries by series creators-executive producers Colette Burson and...
- 6/22/2010
- by josh@reelartsy.com (Joshua dos Santos)
- Reelartsy
Michelangelo Antonioni's 1964 film Red Desert is a bleak exploration of mental illness, alienation and environmental decay. The film is abstract, challenging and is arguably one of the most beautifully composed and photographed cinematic works of the past 5 decades. Honestly.
The film's tone is established immediately. The title sequence unfolds with panning out-of-focus shots of an industrial shipyard. The sequence abruptly cuts to an image of a refinery pipe shooting giant orange flames into the ash grey sky. In the next shot, the camera pulls back to reveal that the sky is gray due to smoke billowing from a nuclear cooling tower. The central characters are then introduced. Giuliana Salviatii (Monica Vitti) and her son Valerio arrive at the factory where her husband Ugo (Carlo Chionetti) is the manager. Ms. Salviatti was recently in a car accident, which has left her mentally unstable. Upon finding her husband, she meets Corrado...
The film's tone is established immediately. The title sequence unfolds with panning out-of-focus shots of an industrial shipyard. The sequence abruptly cuts to an image of a refinery pipe shooting giant orange flames into the ash grey sky. In the next shot, the camera pulls back to reveal that the sky is gray due to smoke billowing from a nuclear cooling tower. The central characters are then introduced. Giuliana Salviatii (Monica Vitti) and her son Valerio arrive at the factory where her husband Ugo (Carlo Chionetti) is the manager. Ms. Salviatti was recently in a car accident, which has left her mentally unstable. Upon finding her husband, she meets Corrado...
- 6/20/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Michelangelo Antonioni's 1964 film Red Desert is a bleak exploration of mental illness, alienation and environmental decay. The film is abstract, challenging and is arguably one of the most beautifully composed and photographed cinematic works of the past 5 decades. Honestly.
The film's tone is established immediately. The title sequence unfolds with panning out-of-focus shots of an industrial shipyard. The sequence abruptly cuts to an image of a refinery pipe shooting giant orange flames into the ash grey sky. In the next shot, the camera pulls back to reveal that the sky is gray due to smoke billowing from a nuclear cooling tower. The central characters are then introduced. Giuliana Salviatii (Monica Vitti) and her son Valerio arrive at the factory where her husband Ugo (Carlo Chionetti) is the manager. Ms. Salviatti was recently in a car accident, which has left her mentally unstable. Upon finding her husband, she meets Corrado...
The film's tone is established immediately. The title sequence unfolds with panning out-of-focus shots of an industrial shipyard. The sequence abruptly cuts to an image of a refinery pipe shooting giant orange flames into the ash grey sky. In the next shot, the camera pulls back to reveal that the sky is gray due to smoke billowing from a nuclear cooling tower. The central characters are then introduced. Giuliana Salviatii (Monica Vitti) and her son Valerio arrive at the factory where her husband Ugo (Carlo Chionetti) is the manager. Ms. Salviatti was recently in a car accident, which has left her mentally unstable. Upon finding her husband, she meets Corrado...
- 6/19/2010
- Screen Anarchy
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