RED DESERT (IL DESERTO ROSSO)

Italy, 1963, 120 minutes, Colour.
Monica Vitti, Richard Harris.
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.

The Red Desert comes immediately after Antonioni's trilogy, L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse. It continues to explore the themes of living and dead feelings in modern people and in our modern alienated and frustrated society.

Once again Antonioni takes a woman's feelings and reactions as central (again it is Monica Vitti) and probes her alienation in the industrial area of Ravenna. On the level of incident little happens. On the level of psychological interaction, the film is a pessimistic vision of modern man's inability to adjust to changes from a recent 'romantic' past to the demands of the industrial today. Those who can adjust, however, lose their humanity. The alternatives for the future are maddeningly frightening.

Because of the visual skill and intricacy of the film, an ordinary discussion is difficult to do. Some discussion themes worth discussing are noted, not developed and should lead to discussion. However, this is Antonioni's first colour film and he has used it in such a creative, poetic way that some realisation of the potential meaning of the film in the colour techniques used should be shown. Thus: - the choice of significant colours and symbolic colours;
- the use of focus and lack of focus, soft focus;
- the choice of objects photographed, seemingly incidental, but making comment on the theme;
- the use of effects or incidents whose interpretation is complex or uncertain;
- the lack of character development along with a disturbing exploration and development of the theme.

1. Guiliana - a modem woman, whose lifestyle and values are of the past (romantic), who must survive in an industrial society. Her frustration, neurosis, longing for love.

2. Alienation - "The human predicament in industrial society". Does industrialism and the dehumanisation of life cause alienation or is it the occasion, condition or catalyst of it?

3. Industrial society - its beauty and colours, yet its hardening and deadening effect.

4. Escape by fantasy - the significance of Guiliana's story.

5. Symbols - gas-flame and steam, ships, toys, etc.

6. Pessimism - is the process of alienation inherent in human history and aggravated by recent cultural and industrial change? Is the future to be one of neurotic isolation or less than human acceptance and normality?

7. How successful is this film as an exploration of human values by cinematic techniques?

8. Colour and symbolism: Giuliana's green dresses, yellow gas light, fantasy clarity of pink and blue, monochrome pink after the love-making; the initial sandwich, the scream; pipes and metal; gas killing fish and birds and natural colours, story of the birds not killed by smoke because they fly round it?

9. Theme of communication and love: son, husband, parents; mechanised toys, son feigning paralysis; the 'orgy' sequence and adolescent playing?