Red Desert

An idle and socially ambitious intern learns the meaning of responsibility under the guidance of an authoritarian but humane doctor.

Antonioni’s mid-career masterpiece – his first film in colour – tells the story of Giuliana (Monica Vitti), a young woman suffering a mental and emotional crisis and embarking tentatively on an affair. Vitti – Antonioni’s lover and muse, and the star of his earlier films L’avventura, L’eclisse and La notte – gives a magnificent, startling performance. She is ably accompanied by Carlo Chionetti as her unemotional husband Ugo, and Richard Harris as Corrado, Ugo’s restless associate who finds himself drawn to her.

Red Desert is a stunning film from the great Italian auteur, a deserving winner of the Golden Lion at the 1965 Venice Film Festival and a high point in modern cinema.

This is a new restoration with new improved English subtitle translation.

Special features

  • Brand new restoration with new English subtitles.
  • New full-feature commentary by Italian scholar David Forgacs.
  • Original trailer.
  • Fully illustrated colour booklet containing newly commissioned essays, notes, and Antonioni’s recollections of making Red Desert.

Product information

    • Certificate

      15

    • Colour

      Colour

    • Sound

      Sound

    • Running time

      115mins

    • Languages

      Italian

    • Subtitles

      English

    • Original aspect ratio

      1.85:1

    • DVD region

      • 2 Europe (except Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus), Middle East, Egypt, Japan, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Greenland, French Overseas departments and territories

    • Blu-ray region

      • B - Includes most European and Middle-Eastern countries, all of Africa, Australia and New Zealand

    • Catalogue number

      BFIB1134

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