The MoFo Top 100 of the 60s: Countdown

Yeah, there's no body mutilation in it

I just checked and can't find it.

You voted for neither but you were correct that you had Blow-Up at #6, I'll get you your full list sent to you today mate

Any chance you could send my list to me as well?

Love Red Desert. Its Antonioni being Antonioni, so yeah.

Like a fair few Antonioni films it was certainly in consideration at one point but nothing came of it in the end. .

So honeykid, you're not a fan of Antonioni?

Red Desert (Antonioni, 1964)

This is an effective movie in that I think a large part of its intention is to collapse personal, social and environmental observation into an aesthetic critique of industrialization. The commentary is mostly in images and the excellent use of sound rather than in people or plot, so a lot of viewers will mistakenly think this is "pretentious" (a word I almost never use and never use pejoratively), but I think this message comes across pretty clearly and effectively. It even seems like a propaganda film to me. It uses color, form and sound to convey a feeling that this 1960s industrial Italy is corroding people's abilities to connect to the world or each other and perhaps even their minds and bodies. It even literally sucks the color out of organic forms when they're placed in an oppressive concrete place.

This is all a set up for a contrast with a woman's inner world that is pretty much the exact opposite of the real but is made to seem much more real in it's lushness and calm, here too the use of sound is very stong. The movie seems somewhat slow due to its lack of plot but I'm willing to allow that because it really is an aesthetically powerful and memorable film.