Madness might be the only sane reaction in this hellscape.I despise the term "tone poem" to describe a movie, but somehow my mind keeps going to it in this case. Red Desert has a plot, of sorts, as a woman (Giuliana, played beautifully by Monica Vitti) deals with her possible madness (which frankly, might just beb her completely understandable reaction to living in the mad situation of an industrial wasteland where I kept thinking the Italian version of the EPA was falling down on the job), a husband who doesn't seem to understand her and not much care whether or not he does, a son who might have polio and her husband's work colleague (played by a hilariously not-Italian and dubbed so we don't even hear his lovely voice Richard Harris) who's spending just a little too much time being understanding of her. But all this is, back to this again, taking place in a post-WWII wasteland of factories and poisoned waters and smokestacks billowing yellow smoke. The backdrops and landscapes of this are a nightmare and for a lot of the movie it's almost like Giuliana is the only sane person, reacting badly to this poisoned land and careening from moment to moment. Feeling absolutely alone, she commits a desperate act but in the end it seems to accomplish nothing, as she's last seen simply telling her young son how the birds just avoid the poison smokestacks. It's a really sad, really lovely movie.
★★★★
1964 - Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, written by Michelangelo Antonioni and Tonino Guerra
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