One Paragraph Movie Review: The Red Desert

Two hundred and fifty-second film: Il Deserto Rosso (The Red Desert). Look, I don’t know. I find Antonioni mostly impenetrable, which leaves me having to decide if I’m stupid or he is. Either way, I’m pretty sure I don’t like what he thinks of women, including this film’s heroine, Giuliana. Melancholy, suicidal, sexual, overacted and irritatingly fidgety, she wanders around from bleak urban landscape to bleak domestic setting, despairing about the meaninglessness of her life and the ugliness of a world scarred by shipping and factories. Bleak, dense, confusing, most likely highly symbolic and able to make two hours seem like four, this isn’t my favourite. If I’m missing something, I’m okay with that. Might get Giuliana’s haircut, though. One spooky children’s robot out of five.