Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 13
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 0
liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 4,396
Red Desert (Il Deserto Rosso) once more combines the considerable talents of director Michelangelo Antonioni and star Monica Vitti. Cast as Giuliana, an unhappy wife, Vitti suffers from an unnamed form of depression and malaise. Her quicksilver emotional shifts disturb everyone around her, but they, like she, pretend that nothing is truly wrong. British engineer Corrado Zeller (Richard Harris) seems to understand what Giuliana is really after in life, and he acts upon it by entering into an
Unrated, 2 hr.
Feb 8, 1964 Wide
Sep 21, 1999
Janus Films
All Critics (14) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (0) | DVD (2)
Swoon, ye 21st-century philistines, before the cataract of existential glamour that is Antonioni's Il deserto rosso,
The film's most spellbinding sequence depicts a pantheistic, utopian fantasy of innocence, which she recounts to her ailing son.
Red Desert is at once the most beautiful, the most simple and the most daring film yet made by Italy's masterful Michelangelo Antonioni.
Top CriticThematically, Red Desert is a distillation of Antonioni's preferred themes and imagery: alienation, anxiety, modern life, and industrialized landscapes.
a multi-layered treasure that offers much, but never easily
[Antonioni] casts a hypnotic spell, his every frame is impeccably composed and painted... and his imagery stripped of extraneous details...
Savor every image and every sound. Few directors have created audiovisual landscapes as lush as Antonioni's.
Exquisitely rendered ennui. Criterion's Blu-ray edition of Blu-ray will take you there.
In some ways, this is Art House 101 stuff -- the kind of movie you just know is good for you, because it's so dull and depressing.That, however, is merely one aspect of it.
Perhaps the most extraordinary and riveting film of Antonioni's entire career; and correspondingly impossible to synopsise.
Fantastically haunting psychological drama.
This was Antonioni's first color film and perhaps his most extreme early effort at manipulating the visual images on the screen.
Not an easy film to watch because of its very deliberate pacing, but well worth the effort.
Absolutely stunning! Environmental composition, landscape, and color have never been used so effectively to convey state of mind. The industrial climate is an apt counterpoint to Vitti's neuroticism and lack of adaptibility. A daring and innovative cinematic achievement!!
July 19, 2010Super Reviewer
Well, no one can accuse this film of having too much plot. But the lead actors are charismatic, and the landscapes are striking.Really, it's more of a situation than a story. The setting is a drab, seaside industrial factory. The sky is overcast and foggy. The water is choked with pollution. Monica Vitti plays the
March 17, 2008Super Reviewer
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