The Red Desert Reviews

Brilliant but not for all

This is the fourth Antonioni film I have seen, and it is yet again a brilliant exploration of people's relationships with each other and their surroundings. This time round Antonioni examines the fragile grip his protagonist has on her own sanity and the effect this has on those around her. Her mind frame is echoed by the film's use of noises, garish colour and desolate locations. Antonioni also shows us the changing times of the world and its effects by showing the new noisy overpowering factories juxtaposed with the decrepid older buildings and the damage the modernity is doing to nature. Will certainly be considered dull by some viewers, but fans of Antonioni will find much to enjoy here.

[Highly rated reviewer]

A challenging masterpiece

In watching this film I thought a little pompously that there were hidden metaphors in the personal lives of some characters, linking them to the sombre, decaying and polluted, yet strangely rich, industrial environment of the film. But maybe I was wrong. Particularly intriguing, I thought, was the casting of Richard Harris in a leading role as Zeller. Perhaps there was some symbolic value in the colouring of his complexion and hair, that is in relation to the environment in which he thrived.

Later, upon reading Michelangelo Antonioni's comments on the film, I discovered that I had not understood the director's intentions too well - except, hopefully, in maybe appreciating these just a bit with the eye subliminally as he leads us through the scenes.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Urban waste

Monica Vitti plays a fairly irritating, too-sensitive-to-live, female role with similarities to that of Vanessa Redgrave in Blowup. In this case, she has suffered from some type of dissociation of identity following a car accident. She now rolls around like a loose cannon on a rather empty deck of executives and their wives in industrial Bologna. There is probably a symbolism at work here, but it is not compelling. However, like Blowup, strangely watchable.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Urban waste

Monica Vitti plays a fairly irritating, too-sensitive-to-live, female role with similarities to that of Vanessa Redgrave in Blowup. In this case, she has suffered from some type of dissociation of identity following a car accident. She now rolls around like a loose cannon on a rather empty deck of executives and their wives in industrial Bologna. There is probably a symbolism at work here, but it is not compelling. However, like Blowup, strangely watchable.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Colour! Enthralling ...

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 could 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!

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.