{"id":94090,"date":"2023-12-21T23:31:58","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T06:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=94090"},"modified":"2023-12-21T23:39:35","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T06:39:35","slug":"red-desert-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=94090","title":{"rendered":"Red Desert (1964)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;You wonder what to look at; I wonder how to live. Same thing.&#8221; <\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Poster-209x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"209\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-94091\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Poster-209x300.png 209w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Poster-89x128.png 89w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Poster-188x270.png 188w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Poster.png 656w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 209px) 100vw, 209px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe traumatized wife (Monica Vitti) of a petro-chemical industrialist (Carlo Chionetti) begins an affair with a visiting associate (Richard Harris).\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Infidelity<\/li>\n<li>Italian Films<\/li>\n<li>Mental Breakdown<\/li>\n<li>Michelangelo Antonioni Films<\/li>\n<li>Monica Vitti Films<\/li>\n<li>Richard Harris Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nMichelangelo Antonioni&#8217;s fourth and final film made with Monica Vitti was his first in color, and in many ways feels like a fourth addition to their original b&#038;w trilogy &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=85652\"><em>L&#8217;Avventura<\/em> (1960)<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=94080\"><em>La Notte<\/em> (1961)<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=94094\"><em>L&#8217;Eclisse<\/em> (1962)<\/a> &#8212; given that once again, Vitti plays a dissatisfied woman who seems to be aimlessly drifting through life. However, in this case she&#8217;s simultaneously recovering from and continuing to experience an ongoing mental breakdown much more overtly than what her previous characters went through. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Green-Jacket.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Green-Jacket-1024x542.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"339\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-94196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Green-Jacket-1024x542.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Green-Jacket-300x159.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Green-Jacket-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Green-Jacket-768x407.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Green-Jacket-510x270.png 510w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Green-Jacket.png 1278w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Vitti&#8217;s Giuliana is visibly disoriented and deeply distressed. At one point she states, &#8220;There&#8217;s something terrible about reality, and I don&#8217;t know what it is. No one will tell me.&#8221; Her performance is believable, and especially challenging to watch knowing that she lived so many of her final years suffering from Alzheimer&#8217;s. It&#8217;s hard not to sympathize with her sense of disorientation given how stupidly and\/or mindlessly so many people around her act, as epitomized in the film&#8217;s odd party sequence taking place in a crowded riverside shack. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Silly.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Silly-1024x547.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"342\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-94198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Silly-1024x547.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Silly-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Silly-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Silly-768x410.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Silly-506x270.png 506w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Silly.png 1287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s a little strange seeing red-headed Harris playing a dubbed Italian: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti-Harris.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti-Harris-1024x537.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"336\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-94197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti-Harris-1024x537.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti-Harris-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti-Harris-128x67.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti-Harris-768x403.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti-Harris-515x270.png 515w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti-Harris.png 1287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; it works well enough, and his inherent gravitas is welcomed. Story-wise, however, there is as little here to hold onto as in Antonioni&#8217;s earlier films. As Andrew Sarris wrote somewhat impatiently in <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/newspapers?id=dWwQAAAAIBAJ&#038;sjid=54sDAAAAIBAJ&#038;pg=1460,424687&#038;dq=films&#038;hl=en\">his review for <em>The Village Voice<\/em><\/a>: &#8220;Antonioni&#8217;s first color film after eight black-and-white features in 15 years&#8230; is more a series of paintings unfurled in time than the kind of dramatic spectacle we have been calling a movie for the past half-century.&#8221; Indeed, it&#8217;s the visuals here &#8212; a combination of natural landscapes:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Landscape.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Landscape-1024x538.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"336\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-94200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Landscape-1024x538.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Landscape-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Landscape-128x67.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Landscape-768x404.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Landscape-513x270.png 513w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Landscape.png 1295w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and harsh mechanical wastelands: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Machinery.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Machinery-1024x545.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"341\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-94199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Machinery-1024x545.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Machinery-300x160.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Machinery-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Machinery-768x409.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Machinery-507x270.png 507w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Machinery.png 1291w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; that most linger in one&#8217;s memory, rather than anything about the narrative or characters themselves. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Monica Vitti as Giuliana<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti5.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti5-1024x548.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"343\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-94194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti5-1024x548.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti5-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti5-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti5-768x411.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti5-505x270.png 505w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Vitti5.png 1284w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Carlo Di Palma&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Four-People-Standing.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Four-People-Standing-1024x538.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"336\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-94193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Four-People-Standing-1024x538.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Four-People-Standing-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Four-People-Standing-128x67.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Four-People-Standing-768x403.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Four-People-Standing-514x270.png 514w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Red-Desert-Four-People-Standing.png 1289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, though most film fanatics will likely be curious to see it as part of Antonioni&#8217;s quartet of Vitti films. Listed as a film with Historical Importance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0058003\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criterion.com\/current\/posts\/1491-red-desert-in-this-world\">Criterion Essay <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/newspapers?id=dWwQAAAAIBAJ&#038;sjid=54sDAAAAIBAJ&#038;pg=1460,424687&#038;dq=films&#038;hl=en\">Village Voice Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qnetwork.com\/review\/2389\">Q Network Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/558237\/red-desert#articles-reviews?articleId=1082441\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/558237\/red-desert#articles-reviews?articleId=316216\">TCM DVD Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;You wonder what to look at; I wonder how to live. Same thing.&#8221; Synopsis: The traumatized wife (Monica Vitti) of a petro-chemical industrialist (Carlo Chionetti) begins an affair with a visiting associate (Richard Harris). Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Infidelity Italian Films Mental Breakdown Michelangelo Antonioni Films Monica Vitti Films Richard Harris Films Review: Michelangelo Antonioni&#8217;s fourth and final film made with Monica Vitti was his first in color, and in many ways feels like a fourth addition to their&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=94090\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94090"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94214,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94090\/revisions\/94214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}