Red Desert
Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1960s panoramas of contemporary alienation were decade-defining artistic events, and Red Desert, his first color film, is perhaps his most epochal. This provocative look at the spiritual desolation of the technological age—about a disaffected woman, brilliantly portrayed by Antonioni muse Monica Vitti, wandering through a bleak industrial landscape beset by power plants and environmental toxins, and tentatively flirting with her husband’s coworker, played by Richard Harris—continues to keep viewers spellbound. With one startling, painterly composition after another—of abandoned fishing cottages, electrical towers, looming docked ships—Red Desert creates a nearly apocalyptic image of its time, and confirms Antonioni as cinema’s preeminent poet of the modern age.
Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary by Italian film scholar David Forgacs
- Archival interviews with director Michelangelo Antonioni and actress Monica Vitti
- Two short documentaries by Antonioni: Gente del Po, about a barge trip down the Po River, and N.U. about urban street cleaners
- Dailies from the original production
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu, a reprinted interview with Antonioni conducted by Jean-Luc Godard, and writings by Antonioni on Gente del Po and N.U.
New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang
Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary by Italian film scholar David Forgacs
- Archival interviews with director Michelangelo Antonioni and actress Monica Vitti
- Two short documentaries by Antonioni: Gente del Po, about a barge trip down the Po River, and N.U. about urban street cleaners
- Dailies from the original production
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu, a reprinted interview with Antonioni conducted by Jean-Luc Godard, and writings by Antonioni on Gente del Po and N.U.
New cover by Lucien S. Y. Yang
Cast
- Monica Vitti
- Giuliana
- Richard Harris
- Corrado Zeller
- Carlo Chionetti
- Ugo
- Xenia Valderi
- Linda
- Valerio Bartoleschi
- Valerio
- Rita Renoir
- Emilia
Credits
- Director
- Michelangelo Antonioni
- Screenplay
- Michelangelo Antonioni
- Producer
- Antonio Cervi
- Cinematography
- Carlo Di Palma
- Music
- Giovanni Fusco
- Screenplay
- Tonino Guerra
- Camera operator
- Dario Di Palma
- Editing
- Eraldo Da Roma
- Art director
- Piero Poletto
- Set decorator
- Sergio Donà
