522 Red Desert

[swo17]

Didn't Arrow color-correct whatever was given to them for that title?

[ellipsis7]

If anything the greys are slightly blueish here but all other colours are rendered sharp & true...

This is not a Ritrovata resto, rather the work of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome in 2017, a place where I am often to be found...

IL DESERTO ROSSO I'm taking about...

[tenia]

Didn't Arrow color-correct whatever was given to them for that title?

They did, but at the showing I attended, the DCP had the now-usual Ritrovata color signture (that Arrow indeed corrected for their release).

[Sloper]

Over the last few years, I’ve written a scene-by-scene analysis of Red Desert (totalling around 150k words), and I’ve now started a Substack on which I’ll be posting this in 52 parts throughout 2025. I realise it’s a slightly odd (read: insane) thing to do, but at least it harms no one other than myself… And subscription is free.

One discovery I wanted to share here is a possible source for the film’s title. The phrase ‘the red desert’ occurs near the beginning of Max Frisch’s novel Homo Faber. A plane is crash-landing in a remote part of Mexico, and one of the passengers, Walter Faber, describes the view from the plane window: ‘In the distance the blue mountains. Sierra Madre Oriental. Below us the red desert.’ Towards the end of Red Desert we see the 1959 Italian edition of Homo Faber on Corrado’s bedside table, in which the final phrase of the passage just quoted reads, ‘il deserto rosso.’ (On the other bedside table is Italo Calvino’s The Watcher, which is also an important source text for this film.)

Walter Faber, like Corrado, is an industrialist preparing a major construction project in South America. He has a disturbing affair with a woman and is left questioning all his assumptions about reality and his place in the world. Without spoiling too much, there are lots of really interesting parallels between Frisch’s novel and Antonioni’s film, although the novel is well worth reading for its own sake. I say a few things about this in Part 2 of the blog series, and will do a deep dive on it in Part 44 when I get to Corrado's final scene.

I think this is an original discovery, but if anyone here has heard about it before please let me know…

[ellipsis7]

This is actually no big secret...

For instance amongst MA's notes for DESERTO ROSSO @ Archivio Antonioni...

"Appunti sopralluoghi per 'Deserto rosso' " [1963 - 1964] - .... Nell'ultima pagina appunti su titoli di Max Frisch (Homo faber) e Calvino (La giornata di uno scrutatore)...

The genesis of the title is a more complicated with the reference you make only one potential element of input...

MA's copy of Homo Faber...

Homo faber : resoconto / Max Frisch
biblioteca
Milano : Feltrinelli, 1960
285 p. / 21 cm.

[Sloper]

Thanks ellipsis, I hadn't found that - very interesting. But it looks like the notebook just lists those two books among other props used in the film. Have you come across any references to the specific detail of the 'red desert' in Homo Faber?

And I definitely agree that there is more going on in the phrase 'red desert' than an allusion to this novel! But I think the novel deals with many of the same themes as the film, and the connections between them are very rich and multi-dimensional.

[ellipsis7]

Not specifically...

There's these further references to Frisch & Homo Faber...

Appunto per "Deserto rosso" e riflessioni incompiute su incesto in letteratura e sulla filosofia s.d..... -8D239b. Riflessione sulla propria indifferenza di fronte al tema dell'incesto in letteratura (con riferimenti a Homo faber di Max Frisch e a L'uomo senza qualità di Musil). Il brano è mutilo

Appunti per trattamento (forse "Deserto rosso") e riflessione su India e USA [1962 - 1964]... Dietro il primo c'è un brano incompleto con un riferimento bibliografico, F. 328 (il riferimento è stato completato con un'altra penna e trasformato in Frisch - 328. Probabilmente gli altri riferimenti con una "F." rimandano anch'essi a uno dei numerosi testi di Max Frisch presenti nella biblioteca di M.A.)

Riflessione sul finale dei propri film s.d... .A. riflette sul fatto che le vicende narrate nei suoi film non dovrebbero avere una conclusione netta, ma dovrebbero essere lasciate sospese, in modo da continuare ad essere interessanti. Il brano è probabilmente una bozza per 8D52, che sarebbe diventato parte di un racconto di Quel bowling sul Tevere
Frammento di pagina dattiloscritta con Olivetti, incollato su foglio A4. Sul lato sinistro sono presenti segnature a biro blu, pennarello fucsia, pennarello rosso e pennarello verde. Sul bordo superiore è stata manoscritta a biro nera una citazione da Max Frisch (cfr. 1A Libri 1101-1106): "Ogni cosa terminata cessa di essere domicilio del nostro spirito". "Pag. 71".

Note this latter reference does not cite DESERTO ROSSO specifically & could apply broadly to MA's filmmaking as well as particularly to one of the stories in his collection Quel Bowling sul Tevere as suggested...

BTW Volker Schlöndorff 's VOYAGER (1991), involving future MA collaborators Sam Shepard & Rudy Wurlitzer, is an actual screen adaptation of Max Frisch's Homo Faber...

[Drucker]

Congratulations, Sloper! Looking forward to reading, I already subscribed.

[Altair]

Over the last few years, I’ve written a scene-by-scene analysis of Red Desert (totalling around 150k words), and I’ve now started a Substack on which I’ll be posting this in 52 parts throughout 2025. I realise it’s a slightly odd (read: insane) thing to do, but at least it harms no one other than myself… And subscription is free.

So this is your excuse for not posting as much! Reading your first entry, it's quite wonderful, and I would encourage everyone here to take a look.

[domino harvey]

Great start Sloper, looking forward to more

[Mr Sausage]

Over the last few years, I’ve written a scene-by-scene analysis of Red Desert (totalling around 150k words), and I’ve now started a Substack on which I’ll be posting this in 52 parts throughout 2025. I realise it’s a slightly odd (read: insane) thing to do, but at least it harms no one other than myself… And subscription is free.

Not insane at all. One substack I subscribe to is going through King Lear bit by bit and providing commentary on each part. You’re in good company.

[Sloper]

Thank you for the kind words! And for the Substack recommendation Mr S, that is very reassuring.

[MichaelB]

Having just signed off on another commentary, I'm feeling no small amount of jealousy at the way that you don't have to adhere rigidly to the film's own pace!

(Commentary planning – at least for me – is mostly "OK, I have one minute and twelve seconds to get these points across; how many words is that?")

[denti alligator]

Really excellent so far, sloper!

[bottlesofsmoke]

This is great, Sloper. Red Desert is one of my favorite films and one I think about quite often, looks like I’ll be thinking about it even more now!

[ellipsis7]

Having just signed off on another commentary, I'm feeling no small amount of jealousy at the way that you don't have to adhere rigidly to the film's own pace!

(Commentary planning – at least for me – is mostly "OK, I have one minute and twelve seconds to get these points across; how many words is that?")

It's a bit like subtitling, I guess... There's only so many words & so much space & the ongoing pace of the film that restricts the phrases that fit and must also flow... A skill in itself, the result of which, in each case, becomes
a copyrighted entity of its' own accord...

This also seems the right place to give a heads up to the wonderful new SPAZIO ANTONIONI in Ferrara, the customised building & permanent expedition dedicated to MA & his work, drawn from the rich resources of the Archivio Antonioni in the same city... It opened at the end of May last year & is well worth a visit... Featured is the ten minute reel of 'provini', Monica Vitti's screen tests that MA made for DESERTO ROSSO, in various costume and hair colours... BTW Antonioni said the film was originally titled CELESTE VERDE, but abandoned that because it did not seem 'virile enough' and lacked subtlety (as he told Jean Luc Godard)...

Keep up the good work Sloper!...

[Sloper]

(Commentary planning – at least for me – is mostly "OK, I have one minute and twelve seconds to get these points across; how many words is that?")

There's a really interesting David Forgacs article (called 'Preparing and Recording Audio Commentaries') in which he describes how he and Lesley Caldwell had a rude awakening when they a) were asked to submit a script a week in advance of recording their Ossessione track, and b) realised in the recording process that this script needed to be much more carefully timed to avoid over-running in some scenes and under-running (i.e. leaving 30 seconds or more of silence) in others. It's still a very good commentary I think, but the ones he did later (including Red Desert) are noticeably better in terms of their alignment with the films. I'm sure that if I had to record a commentary I would panic and break down in tears within the first five minutes, so I appreciate the effort you and others put into these things!

Ellipsis, the Spazio Antonioni sounds incredible, I hope I can go there some day. The Celeste e verde thing is fascinating and I have a whole post dedicated to it later on. Giuliana says she wants these as the colours for the walls and ceiling (respectively) of her shop on the Via Pietro Alighieri, like a green sky over blue hills - it's a nice coincidence that the Ferrara tourist office that runs the exhibition is called 'Terra e Acqua', and that its logo portrays a spectrum of colours from red, through green, to blue...

[ellipsis7]

Very interesting, Sloper, many thanks indeed... That David Forgacs RED DESERT Commentary transcript & timings for those who will find it useful... Rolando Caputo also does good commentary on the Australian DVD of the same...

[MichaelB]

Thanks for flagging up that article, of which I wasn't previously aware - and as I'm a huge Forgacs fan (he's one of my commentary role models, in fact), I shall read it with forensic attention once I get hold of the whole thing - happily, I have plenty of academics in my family who should have the necessary access.

But on the basis of the publicly-accessible first page, I agree with every word. I've never had to submit a script in advance (the closest I came to that was the list of Sony-mandated dos and don'ts for Arrow's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; otherwise I've had carte blanche), but I have personally witnessed someone attempting to extemporise a critical commentary without a script or any notes, only to find himself noticeably running out of material well within the first twenty minutes - we did manage to salvage something from the wreckage, but it wasn't one of my most fondly-remembered sessions. You don't necessarily need a fully written-out script, but as a minimum you need a selection of bullet points covering blocks of typically two or three minutes apiece, just so you know for certain what you're going to be talking about.

Where I suspect I differ from Forgacs is that I've always edited my own stuff (the only exception being the BFI's Hidden City, where I was Stephen Poliakoff's moderator), so I don't have to rehearse thoroughly in advance - I can record it chunk by chunk, not necessarily in consecutive order. (For instance, I usually record the last ten minutes at a fairly early stage, just to ensure that I don't run out of material.) And this editorial control makes it much easier to time things where it's more important for me to end on a particular image than to start on one.

For instance, when I was talking about the visible bullet impact in Andrzej Wajda's A Generation, I aimed to finish talking about the film's pioneering use of a squib on the actual shot - in fact, if I remember rightly, I deliberately stop talking a beat before the bullet hits and bring up the soundtrack at that point. And because that timing could be locked down (in Final Cut Pro, I could visually ensure that that block was timed so that it ended at precisely that point), I could record that particular story at any length I wanted, as it didn't matter when it started.

[therewillbeblus]

Sloper, this is so fascinating and just a pleasure to read. I look forward to watching the movie multiple times this year to take in all you're giving

[denti alligator]

Yes, loving this, though I haven’t seen the film in over a decade and don’t even have the Criterion Blu-ray. When’s the next 50% off sale?

[domino harvey]

There will be one direct from Criterion in February or March

[therewillbeblus]

I know the color scheme between releases (Criterion and BFI?) has been contentious here. I'm curious, Sloper, which release you're using for your analysis? Especially since so far there's been a strong focus on color.

[Sloper]

Good question, TWBB – I’ve been using the BFI blu-ray so far, although for the title sequence I also took screenshots of the Criterion (which I only have on DVD) and agonised over which ones to use. I did in fact use a couple of shots from the Criterion at the start of Part 2, because the yellow haze seemed a little more visible on that one. I’ve added a couple of brief footnotes about this now, in case anyone else wonders about it. I didn’t do this before because I told myself no one would care, but in the back of my mind there was a hoarse whisper saying, ‘someone from the forum will care…’.

I think the only part where I explicitly discuss the different editions is when I talk about the purple trees in the swamp, which are noticeably more purple on (IIRC) the Criterion and especially the Madman releases. Otherwise I don’t think I make any observations that would depend on a specific edition, but I genuinely welcome any comments about this. Besides the three I’ve mentioned I don’t own any other editions (though I did see the more recent restoration that was playing on Mubi a while ago), and I tend not to have strong opinions about these things or a hugely sensitive eye for these differences – it’s definitely an important issue, though.

[therewillbeblus]

I don't have any strong opinion either, but I know it's been a significant topic of conversation in the past here (if I recall correctly, even amongst forum members who typically don't involve themselves in color timing debates!) so it felt worth asking - thanks for the reply!