Mark Kermode reviews Antonioni’s Red Desert | BFI Player

Mark Kermode finds himself intoxicated all over again by Antonioni’s haunting, enigmatic and vividly colourful drama.
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[@SamDavies94]

My favourite of Antonioni's work, stunning use of sound and colour. Masterpiece.

[@ashishjoshi8148]

The themes of Red Desert had been presaged in the 1936 Chaplin film Modern Times. This film is even more relevant today than it was at the time of its release. A haunting, unforgettable watch.

[@troyacree6705]

The comment about this film having a hint of scifi about it is illuminating. That really captures something I had never considered.

[@richardstevens8839]

Extraordinary use of Colour in this film

[@LAZISH]

The formative movie for me!!!!!

[@jhstudentsable]

“A Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival, ‘Red Desert’ was Antonioni’s first colour feature stunningly shot by Carlo di Palma who would go on to lens ‘Blow Up’ one of the most influentially-hued films of the 60s. Antonioni’s long-time muse Monica Vitti stars as Giuliana, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown who finds herself increasingly isolated from the alien environment in which she lives. Distanced from her industrialist husband she finds solace in a friendship with Richard Harris’s Corrado which seems set to blossom into something more. But Giuliana’s existential angst is overpowering and the world around her ever more hostile. Originally developed under the working title ‘Celeste e Verde’ (Sky-blue and green) ‘Il deserto rosso’ found Antonioni using all the colours of the dark as he explored the full cinematic spectrum. ‘I want to paint the film as one paints the canvas’ said the director who would literally paint landscapes, both natural and industrial to achieve the emotional colours his stories required. Through Antonioni’s eyes and Di Ponti’s zoom lenses the factories which seems so oppressive to Giuliana also have a strange beauty which the film-maker saw as being part of ‘the poetry of the world.’ With its evocative electronic music and startling off-kilter vistas there’s a hint of science-fiction about ‘Red Desert’ in which Vitti becomes ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’. The great critic Philip French called it ‘a political film’ with ‘anger seething beneath the seductively beautiful surface’, but I think it’s altogether stranger than that. Yes, this is a world of pollution and poison, both physical and emotional but it’s also a world of fable and fantasy of imagination and hallucination, worldly and other-worldly. Or to put it another way - it’s a film by Antonioni.”

[@MegaFount]

The review misses the human dimension - alienation both from other people and the environment. The great scene at the docks with the ship in quarantine, the characters who are strangely both erotically charged and alienated from one another, and the failed attempt to make a real connection. A haunting movie that stays with you long after you’ve seen it like a dream you’ve had.

[@vodkatonyq]

It's a film about surviving the new world. Masterpiece.

[@sirlordhenrymortimer6620]

Do a video review of Jean Renoir rules of the game

[@riccardoalcaro8483]

Red Desert is one of the greatest artworks in human history

[@JEFFIE-jp6kj]

After reading your excellent review I think I'll try to watch it again, maybe I'll appreciate it more with your insights in mind .. L'AVVENTURA & L'ECLISSE are still my huge favorites, but I liked this much better than The Passenger

[@sirlordhenrymortimer6620]

First

[@kotoweb]

Red Desert is not a good film. Much better are L'Eclisse and La Notte.

[@dfsulla5682]

Red Desert is a good, psychedelic film. But Antonioni's best film is L'avventura... And this is one of the (few) best movies ever.

[@kotoweb]

L'Avventura is very good, and, in the sense of form and film history, probably the most important Antonioni's film. But, my favourite his film is L'Eclisse, than The Passenger, than La Notte, and L'Avventura comes in fourth place. Blow Up is fifth. Red Desert is empty. Apart from few scenes, nothing special.

[@TrangPakbaby]

dfsulla I love l’Avventura! It’s stunning

[@mrsoprano3848]

I didn’t like Red desert that much but i love Blow-up very much, i also loved L'eclisse and i thought La notte,Lavventura were pretty ok too.

[@DanLyndon]

This is a stupid take, it's objectively his best work.

[@Phobero]

jesus christ even those brief snippets bore me to death. That's the epitome of pretentiousness. You want to be a painter? Paint a goddamn picture!

[@alequaranta]

You don't like "pretentious" movies? Then don't watch reviews on them on KZbin ffs!

[@shadowinthenight26]

@@alequaranta you killed him

[@Ahab71290]

Ah…”pretentious”…the most beloved word by ignorants

[@DanLyndon]

I also hate dull, pretentious films. Fortunately Red Desert is not one of them. It's actually just a great work of art. It's surrealist, but also has a lot of depth and rich characterization with many great moments.