Arriving just after Hitchcock’s Psycho and at the early rise of the psychological thriller era1, “Red Desert” carves out a space that is wholly its own. Instead of focusing solely on its protagonist’s mental struggles—a mother navigating her unease—Antonioni’s first venture into color directs attention outward. The result is a vivid meditation on industrialization, rendered through evocative visuals and atmospheric sound.
Richard Brody of The New Yorker notes, “The characters in his movies seem thin because their environment is developed so thickly; yet that environment, he suggests, is, though exterior to them, an inextricable part of them.” This captures the film’s spirit: the landscape and inner life are woven together, making “Red Desert” far more than a study in psychological distress. It’s an exploration of how the world and those who inhabit it shape one another.
