Antonioni Il Deserto Rosso

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Antonioni Il Deserto Rosso → Mis en Scene. 1964

Colors are used in Films not only to give the viewer a nice and good looking Film, mostly the utilisation is used to let us understand better the feeling and atmospheres of the narration.

Like the utilisation of Musik, the more our senses are affected the more we can feel the narration nearer to us.

Colors are used in different ways dipending from the tradition of the society you live in. It’s not said that if you go in a different country you will fully understand their relations with colours.

For Example in india they use white dresses fort he funeral meanwhile in europe it’a the color of the bride and at funerals we use black.

Given that, as a cosmopolitain society, the bigger part of us travels more and more it results that we get to know this cultural differences and are a lot more flexible in interpretation.

Most of the time by watching a film we are only concentrated by folowing the plot, forgetting so on the other tecniques, witch make the film richer and completer.

That’s why I will analyse the Film „il deserto rosso“ from Michelangelo Antonioni by considering the use of colors and trying to understand following questions.

Why it can be considered as a Grey Film if it is actually a colored one? What are the symbologies of the few recurrent colors? And how can this utilisation be interpreted?

I will proceed this analysis first of all by thinkng about the used colors meening generally, then the utilisation of that same colors considering 4 Scenes.

Later on I will try to collocate the film in the litterary and Artistikaly milieu, to better unterstand why Antonioni begann to use colors, and this colors, only 1964 and not earlier.

But First of all I will give a little intruduction. For time reasons it is impossible to consider the film production of those years, wich is fundamental to better understand the innovation of this Artwork.

Introduction

Il deserto Rosso, written and directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, is his first fil in colors from 1964. Considering that the Color-Cinema begann to expand from the 20. Century and establisched in the 40. Ties; Antonionis decision to realise Colored Film only in the sixties could be considered really late.

During an Interview with Jean Luc Godard, the French Cinema Maker of the Sixties, Antonioni replied to this late utilisation of colors as follows.

Colors are a powerfull but at the same time really difficult technique. Given that Antonioni was a perfectionist in the utilisation of the Tecniques he had to get used to this revolution.

Michelangelo Antonioni togheter with Ingmar Bergman after Marcel Carné used the introspective cinema. The Neorealismo can be seen in Antonionis film production as used in a different way as in the Production from Visconti, Germi, Rossellini and De Sica.

The Plot

Giuliana (Monica Vitti) ist he protagonist and vife of an rich Entrepreneur of Ravenna/ Ugo (Carlo Chionetti). She suffers from a depression caused by an acident (she probably tried to kill herself but we actually never really know)

Giuliana feeles alienated from the society she is living in: she doesn’t know how to understand the new Industries, the Tecnology, The colors and the other Peolple around her.

Corrado (Richard Harris) is apparently feeling the same „Mal de vivre“ as Giuliana, that’s why he has to change often the city he lives in.

Giuliana is seeking an outbrust with Corrado, even if he is a collegue of her husband, but she soon realises that this adventure doesn’t give her the satisfaction she needs in life. Giuliana goes back to her family and acceptes the reality in wich she has to live in. Corrade takes a boat and changes city.

Antonioni together with the director of Photography Carlo della Palma used the symbology of colors for descriving the feelings of Giuliana. The reality we see is always the one she percedes.