History Film / IlDesertoRosso

* ShesGotLegs: Mimi certainly does and stretches them during the shack party.

* AdultFear: The main topic of the film. Giuliana might be mentally unbalanced but first of all she is scared by the modern technological progress.

* {{Exposition}}: Ugo, the husband of Giuliana, relates to Corrado [[spoiler:, her future one-time lover,]] about her former accident and her plans to open a fashion shop. It is not immediately clear why he does that other than for the sake of the exposition.

** Giuliana is woken by the strange noise from the her son's bedroom. It proves to be a constrution kit robot rolling back and forth.

* IHaveThisFriend: Giuliana relates Corrado the story of her attempted suicide pretending that it is about her acquaintance. Lampshaded when she confesses that she herself is "that girl" and Corrado answers that he realised that.

* {{MacGuffin}}: Corrado's quest to hire labour force to work in Argentina. It does not lead anywhere.
* MoodWhiplash: A scene illustrating a tale narrated by Giuliana to the son. The colors in this scene are bright and pure, it is sunlit. On the opposite, the rest of the film looks very dim and gloomy.

* MyGodYouAreSerious: Giuliana at a party drinks the contents of several "aphrodisiac" eggs and ostensibly jokingly proclaims that she's become aroused. Later she confesses to Corrado that it was indeed the case.

* NoodleIncident: a certain incident from the recent past of Giuliana about which her friends avoid to talk.

** Performed by an offscreen creature in the tale of deserted beach sequence. WordOfGod, in this case of Giuliana who told her son the tale, answered his question "Who was singing?" with "Everybody was singing".

* RealityHasNoSoundtrack: It does however soundtrack does not feature any music, it includes ominous drones and noises. Except for the colourful scene in the imaginary land from the Giuliana's tale where "everything sings".

* YourCheatingHeart: Adultery happens rather late in the film after a half-hearted but fairly long romance. [[spoiler:Sex scene is not very exciting]]

* {{Bookends}}: The first scene and the epilogue are made at the same location, near a plant.

* SweaterGirl: Mimi.

* YourCheatingHeart: Adultery happens rather late in the film after a half-hearted but fairly long romance. [[spoiler:Sex scene is not very exciting]]

* {{CloucCuckoolander}}: Giuliana acts as an extreme example of that. [[spoiler: it should be explained by her mental instability.]]

* {{Bookends}}: The first scene and the epilogue are made in the same location, near a plant.

* CloudCuckooLander: Giuliana acts as an extreme example of that. [[spoiler: it should be explained by her mental instability.]]

!! Tropes in ''il deserto rosso'':

* CentralTheme: [[NewTechnologyIsEvil Modern technology suppresses humans]].

* HellIsThatNoise: Giuliana is woken by the strange noise from the her son's bedroom. It proves to be a constrution kit robot rolling back and forth.

* OneWomanWail: Performed by an offscreen creature in the tale of deserted beach sequence. WordOfGod, in this case of Giuliana who told her son the tale, answered his question "Who was singing?" with "Everybody was singing".

''Il deserto rosso'' ("The Red Desert" in English) is a 1964 film by Creator/MichelangeloAntonioni. It won the Golden Lion on the Venice film festival of the same year.

The main character, Giuliana, is played by Creator/MonicaVitti for whom it was a latest in the row of her significant roles in four Antonioni film. Also starring Creator/RichardHarris as Corrado Zeller.
This film might be considered a fourth installment in the tetralogy of alienation by Antonioni alongside ''Film/LAvventura'', ''{{Film/La notte}}'' and ''[[Film/{{Leclisse}} L'eclisse]]'' or even a fifth film if one includes ''{{Film/Il Grido}}''. However it is different in that it is Antonioni's first colour film and one of the most renowned for its inventive use of colour. Also it subverts the trope of OneWordTitle, present in the other works of the series.

Giuliana is a housewife who suffers in an auto accident and subsequently has a nervous breakdown. In the course of the film she remains disaffected, suffering of her condition. She is particularly distressed by the modern technology.

!! Tropes

* UnnecessarilyCreepyRobot: A somewhat ominous looking robot made from the construction kit in the bedroom of Giuliana's son.

* {{Exposition}}: Ugo, the husband of Giuliana, relates to Corrado [[spoiler: ,her future one-time lover ,]] about her former accident and her plans to open a fashion shop. [[spoiler: It is not immediately clear why he does that other than for the sake of the exposition.]]

* GenericGuy: Ugo, the husband of Giuliana does not have any special character features.

* DarkerAndEdgier: What this movie arguably is to L'eclisse. Now the character is older, she survived an accident [[spoiler: or tried to kill herself]] and went insane. L'eclisse was a film about a still young and aspiring woman albeit disaffected.

* BaldOfEvil: A mild example. In the party scene Max, a bald character, behaves in a sleazy way and flirts with a young girl in the presense of his wife. Not an obvious villain but it is implied that he is an unpleasant character.

* GenericGuy: Ugo. the husband of Giuliana.

** Also the episode of the party where they break the wall of the hut.

* TrashTheSet: The party in the shack ends when the bourgeois guests start to destroy the inner walls of the structure belonging to the subordinate of the one of them. It is implied that he will be payed for the damage by his boss but their behavior is still moderately desestable.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Giuliana's house stands near the water with sheeps seen through the window. In one scene her position implies that a big ship visible in the other half-screen moves directly into her.

* {{Exposition}}: Ugo, the husband of Giuliana, relates to Corrado [[spoiler: her future lover]] about her former accident and her plans to open a fashion shop. {{spoiler: It is not immediately clear why he does that other than for the sake of the exposition.}}

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Most characters are with their both feet in the cynical field. Giulina is simply mentally unstable. [[spoiler: Her remarks after her adultery with Corrado are still quite cynical.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Averted in a very interesting EstablishingCharacterMoment. Giuliana buys a bitten sandwich from a worker then in the subsequent scene eats it making several bites. Then cut to the long shot where her son runs up to her with a pan and as he joins her she drops the remains of the sandwich. As she eats some of it, this is not this trope. Also Giulina might have wasted the sandwich but it is not perfectly good to begin with, as she buys it second hand and it is already bitten.

* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Corrad first says that he is from Milan then corrects that he is from Trieste.

* OminousFog: A non-horror version. After the end of the shack party the suddenly fog becomes dense outdoors. Disconcerted Giuliana starts the car and drives into the fog stopping at the very end of the land and miraculously not falling into water.

* CharacterDevelopment: implied by the last scene.

* ParentalNeglect: Decisively averted by Giuliana despite [[spoiler: her apparent mental illness.]]

* SpoiledBrat: Arguably Valeria, the sun of Giuliana who in one scene malingers a leg paralysis from polio. One might suppose that he simply feels abandoned, in the other scenes he is quite obedient.