
Red Desert
1964, Drama, 1h 56m
27 Reviews 5,000+ RatingsWhat to know
critics consensus
Michelangelo Antonioni embraces color for the first time in Red Desert, deploying a searing palette and Monica Vitti's exquisite performance to tell a curious tale of unquenchable desire. Read critic reviews
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Cast & Crew
Giuliana

Corrado Zeller
Ugo
Linda
Emilia
Max
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Critic Reviews for Red Desert
All Critics (27) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (1)
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Michelangelo Antonioni's first film in color, from 1964, is his most mysterious and awe-inspiring work.
July 24, 2017 | Full Review… -
Antonioni's sense of design and how the environment inevitably influences his characters is masterly.
July 27, 2012 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review… -
What a mysterious film it is, with much to perplex and even exasperate, but much to fascinate as well.
July 26, 2012 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review… -
Almost half a century on, Red Desert remains a film of rare beauty and brooding erotic intensity.
July 26, 2012 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review… -
Red Desert is Antonioni's clearest, most striking statement of purpose - and one of cinema's great films.
July 26, 2012 | Rating: 5/5 -
A stunningly beautiful and evocative use of colour and setting.
July 23, 2012 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
Audience Reviews for Red Desert
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May 03, 2017Antonioni impresses us with his stunning use of color (as well as his mise-en-scène, and in his first film in color, no less) to create meaning and visually emphasize what he wants to say in this intelligent and absurdly sharp study about depression and existential emptiness.Carlos M Super Reviewer
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Mar 13, 2012Being Antonioni's first color film, one cannot help be stirred by his masterful use of it. By muting colors with filters-and of course with a little help from paint-he introduces us to an industrial Italy. One void of all the romanticism associated with places like Venice. A place replete with drab grays & brown, where even fruit on roadside stands have lost their hue. It is a world changing. One in which our protagonist Giuliani, played by Monica Vitti, cannot readily accept. The way in which Antonioni captures these new machines, with a sense of eerie wonder, makes it easy to understand why Giuliana would be so unsettled by this new existence. Even Antonioni seems to easily get sidetracked by the awesome power of these monstrous machines & man's relative insignificance when standing next to them. In some ways, I would venture to call it an "industrial horror film." While my use of the term "horror" may raise a brow or two, for Giuliana, this new world is a genuine source of terror. The mechanical screams constantly pierce the air, causing Giuliana much distress. Antonioni frames scenes in which it appears that giant cargo ships are sailing right toward Giuliana, threatening to take her out in the march toward progress. In fact, Giuliana doesn't even feel at ease inside her own home. Haunted by her son's constant contact with these new technologies & other abject horrors not seen by the audience, Giuliana seems to rarely be in a state not consumed with fear. Antonioni exacerbates this fear with his camera, giving her very little room to breathe and in some instances, even backing her into corners. All of this tension is heightened by a superb electronic score which is at times as equally unsettling for the viewer. Overall, a provocative visual exercise & an interesting look at industrial Italy.Reid V Super Reviewer
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Nov 13, 2011A film thats puzzling at times, getting into the mindset of a wife who is not a well woman mentally here, the interesting part about the film is the bleak setting, nset in Italy in a harsh industrial enviroment thiis is the world she lives a wiufe of a industrial manager. the film goes places and there are interesdring moments to be had. not a italian film you think of sometimesscott g Super Reviewer
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Feb 18, 2011A very strange and somewhat hard to follow film but one that has a atmospheric and appropriate setting. You feel a sense of despair that the environment and it's star, Giuliana, portray.Chris B Super Reviewer
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