Red Desert
Short description
Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert is set in Ravenna, where Giuliana, the wife of an engineer, lives with her husband and young son. After a car accident leaves her psychologically shaken, she struggles with persistent anxiety and finds the industrial landscape around her threatening and alienating. Her unease distances her from her family, and she begins spending time with Corrado, a friend of her husband who has come to the area on business. The affair that develops does not resolve her distress.
The film stars Monica Vitti as Giuliana, with Richard Harris as Corrado and Carlo Chionetti as Ugo. Antonioni wrote the screenplay with Tonino Guerra, and it was produced by Tonino Cervi. It was Antonioni's seventh feature as director, following L'Eclisse in 1962 and preceding Blow-Up in 1966.
Released in 1964, Red Desert runs 117 minutes and was an Italian-French co-production. Its critical standing is notably high: a critics' rating of 8.7 out of 10 from 31 reviews, compared with an audience rating of 7.3 out of 10 on TMDB from over 500 votes. Both figures indicate a film that has held a secure place in the reception of Antonioni's work, with critics assessing it more favourably than general viewers on IMDb.
What's left behind the scenes
- The working title of the film was “Sky-Blue and Green” (Celeste e verde) – in the film, the heroine played by Monica Vitti wants to paint her shop in these colors, because “they are cool colors that shouldn’t irritate.”
- During filming, actor Richard Harris experimented with LSD, which complicated the shooting process – once he was caught by the Roman police climbing the famous Trevi Fountain, after which he was taken to a hotel where, under the influence of the drug, he broke several windows with his fists.
- Shortly before the end of filming, Richard Harris flew out of Italy without warning. An actor of similar build was urgently found to be filmed from the back and from a distance. During post-production, all of Harris’s lines were dubbed by an Italian actor.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
