red desert (1964)

following my previous foray into the world of michelangelo antonioni with the wonderful blow-up, i decided to follow it up with the newly released (on dvd) 'red desert', which incidently was antonioni's first colour film. i havent yet seen any of his black and white work, a situation hopefully soon rectified, so cant really comment on the difference between the colour and the black and white films, but i would like to point out just how beautiful the film looks. his use of colour has many connotations, with the use of red being symbolic of our protaganists state of mind amongst other things. the bold backgrounds, especially the earlier scenes set within the compound of industry gives the feeling of an otherworldy nature, which leads to my next point -

the film is almost like a science fiction piece. the environment and use of sound reminiscent of the worlds later created in films such as stanley kubrick's "a clockwork orange" and andre tarkovsky's "stalker''. ''red desert'' has a very unique electronic score, that adds to the mechanical and otherworldy feel of the picture, and the use of industrial change as a metaphor is similiar to those of those seen in later science fiction work.

i enjoyed red desert wholeheartedly, and look forward to my next antonioni, the passenger (1975).

bigger than life (1956)

as nicholas ray's film started i imagined how cool these opening shots would have looked in cinemascope. to date i have only experienced one film in the wonderful format, jack cardiff's* "scent of mystery" (1960). its a fairly unusual format, at least it is compared to anything we would find familiar these days. basically the screen is extra wide and curved, conveying the feeling of being surrounded by the image to the viewer. the title scene of 'bigger than life' involves reels of children running out of a school, towards and around the camera, so its probably quite understandable as to why the cinemascope format so perfectly.

'bigger than life' tells the story of ed avery, a middle class school teacher, working part time as a cab-clerk in order to support his family. through an illness presumably a result of his exhaustion from working both jobs, avery finds himself with a predicament - try a new miracle-cure, or die from his ills. after becoming addicted and dependant on the miracle cure avery's mood changes hugely, culminating in an attempt on his family's life. the film reminded me greatly of the original cape fear (1962), with the tension building throughout leading to the borderline-unbearable climax.

its worth noting just how bold some of the dialogue and concepts within the film are, and just how relevant the piece remains. lines such as "God was wrong!" or "childhood is a congenital disease - and the purpose of education is to cure it. we're breeding a race of moral midgets." would be incredibly daring in a hollywood studio film today, let alone 52 years ago.


*jack cardiff was michael powell & emeric pressburger's longterm cinematographer, shooting such classics as the red shoes and black narcissus for them. "scent of mystery" was the first studio film to be shot in smell-o-vision according to cardiff, who was present at the screening. the film carried the inspired tagline of "first they moved (1895)! then they talked (1927)! now they smell!" and features a wonderful cameo by elizabeth taylor.