Red Desert
d. Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964
Red Desert is Michelangelo Antonioni's intoxicating color feature that's not really about anything. It stars Monica Vitti as more or less a similar character to the ones she played in Antonioni's previous works L'Avventura and L'Eclisse, but here she's got a somewhat less subtle existential crisis. She'd been in a car accident and never really psychologically recovered from it, and the movie follows her through a series of situations of growing discontent. The beautiful color photography (certainly one of the most expressive use of Technicolor ever) evokes a palpable sense of discomfort, and it carries the movie a long way. At its simplest, Red Desert is a brilliantly fascinating portrayal of a disturbed woman. Not that it really matters, however, as Antonioni's intricate mise en scene and Monica Vitti are so charming.
