Line #51 Film/IlDesertoRosso


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_desert_meast.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Landscape in the mist]]
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4	''Il deserto rosso'' ("The Red Desert" in English) is a 1964 film by Creator/MichelangeloAntonioni. It won the UsefulNotes/LeoneDOro at the Venice film festival that year.
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6	The main character, Giuliana, is played by Creator/MonicaVitti as the latest in her string of significant roles in Antonioni films. Also starring is Creator/RichardHarris as Corrado Zeller.
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8	This film might be considered a fourth installment in the tetralogy of alienation by Antonioni after the trilogy of ''Film/LAvventura'', ''Film/LaNotte'' and ''[[Film/{{Leclisse}} L'eclisse]]''; or even a fifth if one includes ''Film/IlGrido''. Though, it is different from the trio in that it is Antonioni's first colour film, and notably so in that it is one of the most well renowned films for its inventive use of colour. It also does not have a OneWordTitle, like the other works.
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10	Giuliana is a housewife who had previously been in a car accident and suffers a nervous breakdown. Through the film, though she remains distant from this depressive state, she is particularly distressed by the modern technology.
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12	----
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14	!! Tropes in ''Il deserto rosso'':
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16	* BaldOfEvil: A mild example. In the shack 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.
17	** Subverted later when the guests start to destroy the walls of the shack. He becomes the OnlySaneMan protesting against their vandalism. The reason for that might be that he sold the shack to his subordinate so it is not his any more.
18	* BilingualBonus: A man in the penultimate scene actually speaks Turkish.
19	* BookEnds: The first scene and the epilogue are made at the same location, near a plant.
20	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Giuliana remembers that a doctor said to her that she should learn to love her husband, her son, some work or at least a dog.
21	* BreatherEpisode: The Giuliana's tale related to her son.
22	* BrokenBird: Played pretty straight with Giuliana.
23	* CentralTheme: [[NewTechnologyIsEvil Modern technology suppresses humans]]. However according to the WordOfGod it is zigzagged.
24	* CharacterDevelopment: implied by the last scene. Giuliana appears to have coped with her mental condition.
25	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Giuliana acts as an extreme example of that. [[spoiler: it should be explained by her mental instability.]]
26	* ColorMotif: The film.
27	* DarkerAndEdgier: What this movie arguably is to L'eclisse. Now the character is visibly older and married, 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.
28	* DoggedNiceGuy: zigzagged with Corrado Zeller. Most of the time he is very understanding and sympathetic with Giuliana however in the end he is somewhat too insistent.
29	* DumbBlonde Invoked then subverted with Mimi who makes caustic remarks about Max to his wife. [[spoiler: Totally averted as Mimi might be actually a redhead too.]]
30	* TheEnd: FINE in Italian which means "end".
31	* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Giuliana in the first scene buys a bitten sandwich from a worker. Even though the worker at first refuses to sell her the item saying that a food shop is just around the corner he then cedes her the sandwich. Also he at first rejects the money which she insists he should take for the food but then he accepts a bill. Giuliana offers the bitten sandwich to her son. When the latter refuses she proceeds to eat it herself. This fragment establishes that she is troubled and probably inadequate but honest and caring.
32	* {{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 shop of an unspecified nature. It is not immediately clear why he does that other than for the sake of the exposition.
33	** Also the subsequent monologue of Corrado about his own story told to Ugo.
34	* FanDisservice: [[spoiler: Sex scene of Giuliana and Corrado which is very clinical and never exciting]]
35	* FieryRedhead: Mimi.
36	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Giuliana's house stands near the water with the passing ships seen through the window. In one scene her position implies that a big ship visible in the other half-screen moves directly into her.
37	* GenericGuy: Ugo, the husband of Giuliana, does not have any special character features.
38	* GreenAndMean: Subverted, Giuliana sports a green coat, However she is not mean but mentally troubled.
39	* HappyEnding: Pretty oddly this trope is invoked in this film as opposed to the whole of Antonioni's filmography. It is implied in the last scene that Giuliana learnt to cope with her psychological problems.
40	* {{Housewife}} Monica Vitti, now two years older than in L'eclisse plays a housewife unlike in the three previous films for Antonioni. She is not the most exemplary one but cares for her son enough.
41	* HellIsThatNoise:
42	** Giuliana is woken by the strange noise from the her son's bedroom. It proves to be a construction kit robot rolling back and forth.
43	** The film also starts as well as ends with unnatural, disharmonic sounds.
44	* 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 realized that.
45	* ImHavingSoulPains: Giuniana once says that her hair aches.
46	* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Corrado first says that he is from Milan then corrects that he is from Trieste.
47	* KarmaHoudini: Marital infidelity does not result in any negative consequences for Giuliana.
48	* LegFocus: Mimi stretches her legs during the shack party.
49	* {{MacGuffin}}: Corrado's quest to hire laborers to work in Argentina. It does not lead anywhere.
50	* MoodWhiplash: A scene illustrating a tale narrated by Giuliana to the son. The colors in this scene are bright and pure, it is sunlit. The rest of the film looks very dim and gloomy.
51	** Also the episode of the party where they break the wall of the shack.
52	* 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 Ugo that it was indeed the case.
53	* NewTechnologyIsEvil: All technology in general here.
54	* NoAntagonist: Except for the madness
55	* NonAnswer: Zigzagged with Corrado Zeller who at first gives the one to Giuliana when she (suddenly) asks him whether he is a leftist or a rightist. He first says that he the words are too blunt to describe his ideas. Then he adds that he believes in humanity, a little less in justice and a little more in progress. Then he admits that he probably believes in the socialism. He wraps up that he first of all wants to live in the just world and to have a clear conscience which he does. He ends the speech asking Giuliana "are you satisfied?". She merely answers that his speech sounded like a good little group of words.
56	* OminousFog: A non-horror version. After the end of the shack party suddenly the fog becomes dense outdoors. Disconcerted Giuliana starts the car and drives into the fog stopping at the very end of the pier and miraculously not falling into water.
57	* OneWomanWail:
58	** 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 "Everything was singing".
59	** Also the same one-woman wail replaces the scratching noise in the beginning.
60	* OnlyOneName: Played straight with everyone, subverted with Corrado Zeller only.
61	* OnlySaneMan: Max when people start to break the barrack where he invited them but which already does not belong to him. He asks the others stop but they do not.
62	* ParentalNeglect: Decisively averted by Giuliana despite [[spoiler: her apparent mental illness.]] she cares for her son.
63	* ThePowerOfLove: Inverted by the psychiatrist who attended to Giuliana. He said that it was '''she''' who needed to love someone to help herself.
64	* RayOfHopeEnding
65	* RealityHasNoSoundtrack: The soundtrack does not feature any music, however it includes ominous drones and noises. The exception is the colorful scene in the imaginary land from Giuliana's tale where "everything sings".
66	* RealityHasNoSubtitles: The penultimate scene with a Turkish sailor is not subtitled.
67	* RedheadInGreen: Creator/MonicaVitti is a (sort of) redheard here and in the opening scene she wears a green coat. She wears the same coat in the closing scene set in the same place.
68	** Mimi who might be a redhead sports a green jumper too in a barrack party scene.
69	* RedIsViolent: In this case for the psyche of the main character (Giuliana), who is further depressed by various technosphere objects painted red.
70	* SexForSolace: That's what Giuliana tries [[spoiler: It does not work.]]
71	* SexyDiscretionShot: Averted. As a result the viewer receives a very unsexy sex scene.
72	* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Most characters are with their both feet in the cynical field. Giuliana is simply mentally unstable. [[spoiler: Her remarks after her adultery with Corrado are still quite cynical.]]
73	* SpoiledBrat: Arguably Valerio, 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.
74	* TheStoic: Ugo, the husband of Giuliana who quietly supports her. [[spoiler: Zigzagged as he does not return immediately from London when he learns that his wife has an auto accident.]]
75	* SympatheticAdulterer: Arguably Giuliana is that. Then again her husband is a rather secondary character in the film.
76	* 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 Giuliana 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.
77	* 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 detestable.
78	* UnkemptBeauty: Giuliana. It should reflect her general distressed condition.
79	* UnnecessarilyCreepyRobot: A somewhat ominous looking robot made from the construction kit in the bedroom of Giuliana's son.

Context Film / IlDesertoRosso