It’s a flawed work but contains several elements that have much in common with films of masterpiece caliber
Flop for Antonioni- perhaps his biggest and infamously included on list of 50 worst films from Harry Medved, Dreyfuss, Medved—but it’s not that- it’s still a great film—ambitious as hell artistically even if it does not all land
Lead protagonist- Mark Frechette was a real-life counterculture figure and robbed a bank and was killed in prison in 1975—he’s not a great actor and although Antonioni does not need his actors to “perform” (compare the 1975 Nicholson performance in The Passenger to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) much like the models used by Bresson— this film would still be much better with a Vitti, Nicholson, Hemmings, Marcello or Delon in lead here for sure
Pink Floyd score, songs by Grateful Dead, Stones
Like Blow-Up very much of time and place- set in 1969 student rally, “dig” and “hip”- Sam Shepard co-wrote
Love the gorgeous soft-focus close up opening credits. People are not communicating and that is shown cinematically though film style
Billboard/advertising montage to abrasive industrial score
Love the shot of Rod Taylor (the one actor here who comes away looking good) in front of a ridiculously opulent skyscraper with American flag in background
Adore the shot of the secretary with the machine collapsing on top of her—his is set design or mise-en-scene bliss and architecture as character
Frechette looks like Peter Fonda in Easy Rider
Antonioni is angry and it comes across gratifyingly in most sequences- we’re bombarded with advertising
In the flight scenes Antonioni dwells on the California smog
Again, aside from Taylor the acting is distractingly bad
Gorgeous shot of an old timer drinking a beer at the bar
Long static stretches of car vs. plane playing chicken—like L’eclisse Antonioni has fallen in love with the flight sequences with not much to look at—longer here
The Zabriskie Point valley set piece is the new rock island from L’Avventura
The dust jumps off the ground with the crisp desert photography like the fight scene in the Searchers (shown and highlighted so well in Mean Streets)
A standout sequence is the orgy montage set to electric guitar. It’s like the drug-trip editing montages in Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy the year before- pretty impressive. The final shot of the lovers all over the valley is a great shot—and then dust creating a fog (Antonioni uses fog in like every film) and then back to just the two lovers
Painted red bathrooms in the desert
Rock music on open roads- Easy Rider – not all the way there but there’s a little lovers-on-the-run genre like Bonnie & Clyde or Badlands
After hearing of his death, Daria Halprin stands outside green car, in green dress, amongst tall standing green cactus—beautiful
The final house is a hell of a set piece- couldn’t capture it with a picture here online but there’s a gorgeous shot of rocks reflecting off the glass of the house
Men meeting and discussing (Taylor) how to market and profit off the land with the people who used to own the land reduced to being servants/help
Cuts to foreshadow of explosion
17 camera set-ups in final explosion montage – we get the explosion at least 14-15 times followed by a great avant-garde expressionistic ending. Slow-motion explosions of consumer products flying in the air—this is the end game—recalls Godard’s Weekend tracking shot. Rock score, cuts to her—was it all surrealism? She drives away to Roy Orbison at sunset- fascinating work
At the end, before the house explosion, there are the scenes that focus on gas outlets and cigarettes left burning on the outdoor gallery. This says that she left the gas on and the cigarette burning to intentionally blow up the house. Her brief glimpse of the house exploding was her coming up with the idea to blow the house up when she was grieving after she hears the news of his demise. In most of the media descriptions I’ve read of this movie they say that she is imagining the house blowing up, but this is not the case. She blew the house up herself.
Just watched this on your recomendation. Very interesting how so many people hated it.
I wonder, would you consider this to be a film from the new hollywood movement even though its made by an italian who had been at it for about 20 years? Its made by an american production company and has drugs, sex, and violence which were prevalent in most of the new hollywood
@Big chungus- no, I would not consider this part of the New Hollywood movement. Antonioni had a big influence though on that generation of American filmmakers- look at Blow-Up a few years before- both De Palma and Coppola made their versions of the film.
At the end, before the house explosion, there are the scenes that focus on gas outlets and cigarettes left burning on the outdoor gallery. This says that she left the gas on and the cigarette burning to intentionally blow up the house. Her brief glimpse of the house exploding was her coming up with the idea to blow the house up when she was grieving after she hears the news of his demise. In most of the media descriptions I’ve read of this movie they say that she is imagining the house blowing up, but this is not the case. She blew the house up herself.
@KR— fascinating. Thanks for the comment.
Just watched this on your recomendation. Very interesting how so many people hated it.
I wonder, would you consider this to be a film from the new hollywood movement even though its made by an italian who had been at it for about 20 years? Its made by an american production company and has drugs, sex, and violence which were prevalent in most of the new hollywood
@Big chungus- no, I would not consider this part of the New Hollywood movement. Antonioni had a big influence though on that generation of American filmmakers- look at Blow-Up a few years before- both De Palma and Coppola made their versions of the film.