antoniocasaca123 Another film with the "Antonioni brand". Little (apparently) happens, slow pace, long scenes without any dialogues (Brian De Palma saw for sure Antonioni's films ...), some things (seemingly) pointless, improved and obsessive technique in sound and image. As for us, those of us who have an open mind and who truly enjoy the art of cinema, we simply love and are dazzled by what we see. Excellent performance by Monica Vitti.

MartinHafer "Red Desert" is the sort of film that sophisticated folks might say they enjoy though the common person wonders why the film what made in the first place. Although my taste often runs to foreign language films, I find myself siding with the average viewer--wondering if there is any point to this film. And, as I sit here and write my review, I wonder why Antonioni would make a film that would have little, if any, interest to most viewers--though this can be said about several of his other films (such as his inexplicable "Zabriskie Point").The film is set in a toxic wasteland of a town. There is a huge factory there and almost everything is grey and dead. The water is a cesspool, a boat arriving at the port has some sort of plague and yellow smoke is belched by the smoke stacks. It is truly an awful place. Giuliani (Monica Vitti) lives there with her son and husband and the camera follows her throughout the movie. She is bored and mentally ill and spends pretty much the whole film complaining about her life, staring into space and questioning her existence. There really isn't a whole lot more to the film than that, though Corrado (Richard Harris) pops in and out of the movie and sticks around long enough to have sex with screwy Giuliana.Overall, this is a dark, depressing and seemingly pointless film. Perhaps it is supposed to be some statement about life itself and interpersonal alienation, though frankly, I think this is ridiculous. Life is good and sweet--and seeing an awful film like this seems like a waste of time.

Slime-3 Some film review books claim Antonioni's best work was all shot in monochrome and thereafter he was less effective, but this movie easily dispels that argument. Colour gives him an extra tool with which to elaborate his familiar themes of alienation and failing relationships. It's the best work I've seen by this darling- director of the art-house set. The use of colour, the eerie locations, the juxtaposition of almost horrific industrial installations belching coloured smoke with deserted ancient Italian streets and the electronic soundtrack (hard to call it a score as such)is disturbing and arresting. The natural world is grey and brown, the man-made elements are primary coloured, invasive and overpowering. Within this landscape, fizzing and gurgling with pollution and decay we find an unhinged engineers wife who's recovering poorly from a car accident and struggling to cope the responsibility of motherhood and being the wife of a man tied up with his career. Some reviewers pour scorn on Monica Vitti's performance in this difficult and complex lead role. Does she over act? Is she hamming it up? I'd prefer to think that she's playing the part of a woman on the edge, torn in different directions at a moment of emotional weakness, without the mental strength to comprehend how odd her behaviour actually is - in short, she's playing it right. Although it must me said her face is unusually immobile in every role she plays so if her body language might be considered over- the-top her facial expression certainly never is. And she has a distinct air of fragility about her. Richard Harris as the 'other man' in her life is an odd choice for the role. Clearly speaking English dialogue but dubbed over by an Italian-speaking actor, and thus lacking the familiar husky lilting tones one expects to hear. He's rather gloomy,but then so is everyone in this film! His character's presence seems only to push Vitti's closer to the abyss, adding another element of unhappiness and uncertainty to her tormented life.It's not, as you've no doubt deduced, a happy film, in any way, but it has a rhythm and style which will keep you watching and unlike Antonioni's previous films there is a certain structure which makes it more more accessible. Perhaps in being set among working people (although far from 'working class') as opposed to the 'idle rich' of films like L'AVENTTURA, gives it more gravitas? Frankly the navel-gazing of poor-me-life-is-such-a-bore characters of those films makes them much harder to care about than fragile frustrated Vitti in RED DESERT. For the immaculate visual style and striking use of colour alone, this film is well worth the effort (and it is sometimes an effort)of watching but the story line and Vitti's character also make it worth listening to. One curiosity - why the clearly intentional scenes shot out-of-focus? Bizarre and entirely pointless as far as I could see, but a minor quibble.

Errington_92 The mental conflicts Giuliana has throughout Red Desert are shown by prominent uses of various colours to represent the notions of human nature. Blue is just one of these prominent colours. After walking up from a bad dream Giuliana begins to walk around her house in a daze shown through her movements and a piece of non – linear editing. The scene largely contains the colour blue on the walls and on the hand rail which Giuliana sits by. Blue is conveying her feelings of depression as she still suffers the effects of her accident. Once Ugo fully questions Giuliana on her reasons for her dazed state he begins to kiss her and act in a sexual manner. Again the colour blue plays a vital part in the scene as it represents the coldness of Ugo. He is only thinking of his sexual desire rather than fully understanding his wife's problems and does not even realise she is not seeking sexual pleasure at this point in time, she is seeking emotional support. It shows how careless Ugo can be with Giuliana, whose negligence is repeated on multiple occasions.Green is another dominant colour which features for different purposes. In Giuliana's introductory scene she wanders around the Industrial factory in a green coat. Though out this scene Giuliana acts bewildered as she looks at the workings of the factory and the smouldering waste it has left behind. Green is a colour associated with the environment which in Red Desert is clearly being polluted by Ugo's factory. Giuliana is the opposite of Ugo when it comes to the environment, she is disgusted by the state of the environment around the factory. This is established through micro techniques. The eerie electronic score building up in intensity and the blurred vision from Giuliana's point of view gives an insight into her feelings of industrialisation destroying nature. There is also the non diegetic sound of a voice in an operatic tone whilst the point of view shot progresses. The true meaning of the operatic voice is not known till much later in the narrative when Giuliana tells her son a story about a young girl who lived on an island where "nature had such beautiful colours and there was no noise". Giuliana concludes the story by stating the young girl began to hear a voice from the caves where the rocks were like flesh. The voice mentioned is the same operatic voice heard in the earlier point of view shot. The story is clearly shown to be an allegory for the destruction of the environment by the carelessness of human nature happening within Giuliana's world, including Ugo's actions in his factory. To a lesser extent, Green is also presented as showing the misfortune of Giuliana. As she draws closer to Corrado, Giuliana discusses the experiences of a girl she meet whilst hospitalised. This 'girl' is actually Giuliana herself but is referring to the experience in such a manner as she is shamed by the experience. She tells Corrado how the 'girl' felt that her identity was lost and felt out of place. This conversation takes place in a room where Green is the prominent colour highlighting Giuliana's misfortune due to her mental trauma.Although the colour Red features less than other colours in Red Desert, it is the dominant colour in one of the film's pivotal moments. Giuliana, Ugo, Corrado and a few acquaintances spend time in a shack. They eventually all relax in a small room with the colour Red on the walls. They discuss how Quail's eggs enhance sexual desire which results in gaining energy for intercourse. This leads to some of the group eating Quail's eggs to gain the mood for sex. This includes Giuliana, who in digesting the Quail's egg spins around in a trance before enthusiastically stating "I want to make love!". Red incorporates itself into two meanings in this scene. Red is commonly associated with love and lust which obviously takes place in this scene through the sexual energy between the characters. Yet it is also known as conveying death and danger which reaffirms the thoughtlessness of human nature shown in Red Desert. The eating of the Quail's eggs for their own desire is an act on the same scale as Ugo's factory polluting the environment as they are killing off further generations of Quails which means destroying another part of nature.Grey is the fourth and final prominent colour to express themes and emotions in Red Desert. In the scene where we are introduced to Ugo and Corrado they were walking around the factory observing activity. Grey surrounds their environment as operations continue. It illustrates the factory as a bleak and dull place which creates a negative atmosphere of the factory relating to the destruction of the environment, adding emphasis to the pro – environmental theme of Red Desert. Later in the narrative Corrado visits Giuliana in her shop. Again outside the dominant colour is Grey as Giuliana has an episode of depression. She sits next to a stall consisting of Grey items and stares at her surroundings which included staring down the empty road, the Greyness showing Giuliana's sadness which she is experiencing both visually and emotionally.All these colours which contain the themes and emotions in Red Desert show the wealth of expressionism that runs through the narrative. They bring to life the emotions of the characters as well as the atmosphere within scenes. Red Desert makes these emotions intensely visual for the audience which only enhanced the drama. Connecting the colours to the characters made for greatly active viewing thanks to the expressionism provided in each scene. Red Desert is a visual appetite for those who appreciate films of the artistic quality.