Red Desert

Friday, August 23 - Sunday, August 25, 2019

Staff Pick! Chosen by Griff who says: “I’m enchanted by marginal landscapes, devastated by industry. With the alienation of modern life as counterpoint, this film has everything.”

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.

Screening as part of our Summer 2019 series, “Weekend Classics: Staff Picks.”

• Country Italy
• Language In Italian with English subtitles.
• Year 1964
• Running Time 117 minutes
• Distributor Janus
• Director Michelangelo Antonioni
• Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.