Directer:Michelangelo Antonioni Producer:Tonino Cervi Writter:Michelangelo Antonioni &Tonino Guerra Music:Giovanni Fusco, Vittorio Gelmetti Cinematography:Carlo Di Palma Editor:Eraldo Da Roma Running time:120 min Country:Italy, France
Red Desert (Italian: Il deserto rosso) is a 1964 Italian film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Monica Vitti with Richard Harris. Written by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra, the film is about a woman struggling to hide her mental illness from her husband while trying to survive in the modern world of cultural neurosis and existential doubt. Her relationship with her husband''s business associate helps her confront her isolation. Red Desert was Antonioni''s first color film. The working title was Celeste e verde (Sky blue and green). Il deserto rosso was awarded the Golden Lion at the 25th Venice Film Festival in 1964. This was the last in a series of four films he made with Vitti between 1959 and 1964, preceded by L''Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), and L''Eclisse (1962).
Cold, rain, and fog surround a plant in Ravenna. Factory waste pollutes local lakes; hulking anonymous ships pass or dock and raise quarantine flags. Guiliana, a housewife married to the plant manager, Ugo, is mentally ill, hiding it from her husband as best she can. She meets Zeller, an engineer en route to Patagonia to set up a factory. He pursues her, they join friends for a dinner party of sexual play, then, while Ugo is away on business, she fears that her son has polio. When she discovers the boy is faking, she goes to Zeller, panicked that no one needs her. He takes advantage of her distress, and she is again alone and ill.
