RED DESERT (IL DESERTO ROSSO) 1964
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
120 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles
Richard Harris and Monica Vitti star in director Michelangelo Antonioni\'s 60s masterpiece about industrialization and the modern world. Giuliana (Vitti), a young and mentally distressed woman, has attempted to take her life. Although she is married to an inspiring young industrialist, and has a young son, she feels estranged from her relatives and disconnected from the surrounding world. She does not know how to connect to it and feels that something goes terribly wrong. So she wanders, searching for meaning in the industrial lunar landscape of Northern Italy, to no avail.
The story is set in the industrial area of Ravenna full of huge cold factories and machines, and a polluted river valley. The visuals are dominated by pastel colors and cold whiteness with smoke and fog covering everything, and the sound design by repetitive ghostly ship horns and an eerie electronic music score.
Forty years after it was made, this film is amazing for many reasons, mostly perhaps for Antonioni's daring, bold, unique and amazing sense of color. Great performances all around, great camera work, soundtrack - it's perfect. The theme is one that Antonioni has explored since his very first film: the emotional and physical impact of modern alienation. A rewarding, astonishing and visionary film in every sense. Highly acclaimed as a masterpiece of visual form and the winner of the International Critics Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1964.
CINEMA DERIVE
OVERTOOM 301
20:30 Membership 4 Euros for the evening
Location
overtoom 301 amsterdam
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