1970 Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
An epic portrait of late Sixties America, as seen through the portrayal of two of its children: anthropology student Daria (who's helping a property developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert) and dropout Mark (who's wanted by the authorities for allegedly killing a policeman during a student riot)...
To get a stronger grasp on this films ideas and intent one must first comprehend this piece of trivia: Michelangelo Antonioni's original ending was a shot of an airplane sky-writing the phrase "Fuck You, America". Venomous though it may be—and it doesn't need that last shot to drive its message home—it's a markedly seductive and inviting rendition of American socio-political structures through the lense of youthful/foreign cynicism, however patent. If the man's language is guns, you talk to him with a gun, so says a miscellaneous hippie. Antonioni's language isn't the type to end with lingering gun smoke, though watching credits roll by isn't far from it. "The audiences won't like it" MGM insisted, well, "That's the same old jive…
With each viewing, its dramatic "weaknesses" recede and its pure cinematic beauty resonates more clearly.
What Antonioni CAN'T do has always been as mind-blowing as what he can do. See Ingmar Bergman's infamous assessment that Antonioni is an amateur. In this film, Antonioni can't do anything; least of all, film two people talking to each other. Previously he never tried to film a conversation. He makes an honest attempt to do so here, and therein lies the problem: Antonioni doesn't have an honest bone in his body.
We have to have the courage to admit that in the past hundred years all art has been reduced to complaining. An artist is lesser or greater depending on how much he complains. They call it ‘denunciation’. The fact is that it’s complaining, because if it were protest…
Sure, yeah, the leads are terrible and the dialogue betrays the fact that seemingly everyone with a remote connection to the project got a say in it, but this may honestly be, barring some rewatches of Antonioni films I wasn't prepared for at the time, my second favorite of his films after RED DESERT. Alternately wistful and cynical outsider view of America, a place where a hippie can just take a plane and get away with it, until he tries to repent. The callously arranged female models of BLOWUP give way to outright mannequins animated by ad companies who see people only as clotheshorse to prop up their products. Its dream-vision of the States thus ironized, it's nevertheless the most…
This may be Antonioni's half-forgotten masterpiece (although L'Eclisse is definitely better) which acts as a takedown of not just American values and the supposed 'American dream' but proposes the idea that there is no such thing as 'the American value' or 'the American dream' - it's a wondrous anti-celebration of life.
→ Part of my Italian Summer Challenge
The counterculture undercurrents present throughout Antonioni’s career epitomize in Zabriskie Point, an alternately wistful and cynical outsider view of America that is more of an ironized dream-vision of the States. As a place where a hippie can just steal a plane and get away with it until he tries to repent, Antonioni views America as a hazily capitalist and off-centered country. The result of this impression is a confusing and multivious film whose thought-provoking trait and aesthetic supremacy make it one of the Italian master’s most inflaming, albeit frustrating, efforts.
The protagonist hippies are Mark, a witty dropout enraged by conventions and thus forever bored, and Daria, an anthropology student who comes to…
“The radio said, someone stole a plane this morning. Tell the truth, was it you? And why?”
“To get off the ground.”
mostly an incoherent succession of mostly insignificant situations, except for that exceptional middle part in the death valley, where these two young aimless soon-to-be lovers gradually make one with the sandy, dusty dunes they wander around. gorgeous scenes featuring a frechette that looks like delon, dana halprin with her incredible eyes and legs, and this stunning setting of death.
antonioni's potent mix of contempt and hope for america still rings troublingly true decades later. both time capsule and timeless cutural statement have been created from the opening scene bleakly laying out the sad state or discourse in the good ol' usa to the acid tinged hippy desert orgy (queue burning man image search), and of course tapping into the universal love of watching consumer goods blow up; an idea now forever in the lexicon of cinema, yet far less overtly political. artfully shot to an almost decadent extreme, and perhaps a little heavy handed. sometimes hands are heavy for a reason. acting and plot are secondary to this work, probably for the better. a truly beautiful, venomous travelogue.
Antonioni uses the medium of cinema to visually portray his anger and hatred of capitalism in some of the coolest ways possible.
FUCK MATERIALISM, FUCK CAPITALISM, FUCK THE FEDS, FUCK EACH OTHER IN A DESERT.
Definitely appreciated the score more second time round as well, Pink Floyd 👏🏼
The counterculture of American 1960's was a tumultuous and explosive decade; violence clung to the streets, equality for race spread hatred across the country, as pop culture's vibrancy and psychedelic sexual tendencies spread words of nonsense and musical connection. The stench of the American Dream, clinging on to the walls of a dilapidated building, slowly withered away, destroying the ideas and goals the previous decade had built. No more was the standard idea of simplicity, now a complexity and expressionistic viewpoint the youth radiated towards. Antonioni captures the entire Dust Bowl of Sex, Music, Racial Equality, and Violence in a bottle of Sand, spiraling it deeper and deeper into an alienated No-Man's Land. A bursting of intellect and knowledge; as the flames retreat, leaving behind a changed Americana. A visionary Masterpiece.
“If I went to a restaurant and got served an air sandwich, I’d want a refund”
Never have I seen such bad acting in a movie and never has it made something so much more unique and special. This absolutely bonkers flick is about everything and nothing- two hippies in a desert and Pink Floyd and one f the most inventively shot movies I have ever seen. Camerawork was nauseating and astonishing - the colors were batshit insane and nothing really made sense but so many images will stick in my head. Really recommend this for pure viewing pleasure
Jason Bullok 1,000 films
A list of Edgar Wright's favorite 1000 Movies per his list on Mubi on July 27th, 2016.
twitter.com/edgarwright/status/758339515421433856 mubi.com/lists/edgar-wrights-favorite-movies
Peter Stanley 1,199 films
All the films from all the editions, including those subsequently removed, presently totalling 1199. An easy way of seeing how…
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Some of the Chaotic Cinema Facebook page's favourite films (regularly updated) www.facebook.com/chaoticcinema
