The Melbourne Cinémathèque & ACMI present
Red Desert
When
Wed 25 May 2022
The last of Antonioni’s four collaborations with Monica Vitti is an extraordinary portrait of a troubled woman coming to terms with the increasingly industrialised world that surrounds her.
Antonioni’s remarkably expressive use of colour documents both the ruination of the northern Italian landscape and the beauties of industrialisation. Deploying the telephoto and zoom lens to flatten the image and visualise the psychological disturbance endured by Vitti’s character, Carlo Di Palma’s remarkable, painterly cinematography highlights the complex ecological implications that lie at the heart of this unique film. With Richard Harris.
Also screening on Wed 25 May
Program
Facing Modernity: A Tribute to Monica Vitti
Modesty Blaise (1966) – Wed 25 May, 7pm
Red Desert (1964) – Wed 25 May, 9.15pm
L’Eclisse (1962) – Wed 1 June, 7pm
Jealousy, Italian Style (1970)– Wed 1 Jun, 9.15pm
About the program
Monica Vitti is one of the most iconic performers of European modernist cinema. She is best known for her extraordinary four-film collaboration with lover Michelangelo Antonioni in the early 1960s. The cultural and artistic impact of these four films – which launched her career – has, in the international realm at least, tended to obscure her much longer reign as an almost-unrivalled star of Italian comedy.
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About Melbourne Cinémathèque
Australia's longest-running film society, Melbourne Cinémathèque screens significant works of international cinema in the medium they were created, the way they would have originally screened.
Melbourne Cinémathèque is self-administered, volunteer-run, not-for-profit and membership-driven.
