Red Desert

Michelangelo Antonioni

 
Red Desert Criterion Blu-Ray

Blu-Ray

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price:$31.96

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  • Italy, France
  • 1964
  • 117 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • Italian
  •  
  • Spine #522

SYNOPSIS: 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.

Cast & CreditsOpen

Cast

GiulianaMonica Vitti
Corrado ZellerRichard Harris
UgoCarlo Chionetti
LindaXenia Valderi
ValerioValerio Bartoleschi
EmiliaRita Renoir

Credits

DirectorMichelangelo Antonioni
ScreenplayMichelangelo Antonioni and Tonino Guerra
ProducerAntonio Cervi
CinematographyCarlo Di Palma
MusicGiovanni Fusco
Camera operatorDario Di Palma
EditingEraldo Da Roma
Art directorPiero Poletto
Set decoratorSergio Donà

Disc 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 booklet featuring an 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.

From the CurrentView the Current »

Film Essays

Red Desert: In This World

By Mark Le FanuJune 21, 2010

A new man is being born, fraught with all the fears and terrors and stammerings that are associated with a period of gestation. —Michelangelo Antonioni Red Desert Read more »


On Five

Coming Soon: Two Rare
Antonioni Shorts

April 02, 2010

We’re excited to tell you that we’ve officially added two early Michelangelo Antonioni documentary shorts, Gente del Po and N.U., to our upcoming release Read more »


Clippings

Profondo Rosso

April 06, 2010

Many things set Red Desert apart from Michelangelo Antonioni’s other early sixties portraits of spiritual and social alienation (its focus on industry and environmental toxicity Read more »


Press Notes

Press Notes: Red Desert

July 15, 2010

In his five-star review of Criterion’s new DVD and Blu-ray special editions of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert, Time Out New York’s Joshua Rothkopf muses about Read more »

Other Editions

Red Desert Criterion DVD

DVD

1 Disc

SRP: $39.95

Criterion Store price:$31.96

Add to Cart