Red Desert

Il deserto rosso

Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1964

117 mins

8.4 / 10 (5714)

Drama

Synopsis

In Italy’s industrial wastelands, Giuliana, a wife and mother, struggles to hide her fragile mental state from her neglectful husband, Ugo. When Ugo’s friend Corrado visits on a business trip, he senses Giuliana’s anxieties, and they have an affair. But Giuliana’s mental health rapidly deteriorates.

MUBI's take

One of the greatest portraits of alienation ever committed to celluloid, Antonioni’s last major collaboration with Monica Vitti was also his first leap into color. By painting nature like an artist to canvas, he transformed the forlorn industrial landscape into a psychic space of ineffable beauty.