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Red Desert (UK BD) in October
Blu-Ray News

18-09-2008 20:26 | 2575 views | Dave Foster | My Other Content

BFI have announced the UK Blu-ray Disc release of Red Desert on 27th October 2008 priced at £24.99 RRP. Michelangelo Antonioni’s Il deserto rosso tells the story of Giuliana (Monica Vitti), a young married woman suffering a mental and emotional crisis and embarking tentatively on an affair.

Antonioni’s first film in colour is presented on a single-layer disc with the following features:

1080P 1.85:1 Widescreen
Italian PCM Mono (48k/16bit)
Brand new restoration with new improved English subtitle translation
New full-feature commentary by Italian film scholar David Forgacs (with subtitles for the hearing impaired)
Original trailer
Illustrated colour booklet containing newly commissioned essays, notes, and Antonioni’s recollections of making Red Desert

Region coding is TBC.

#1 Posted: 18-09-2008 21:31
tonyleung Member Posts: 854	Is rthis any good? I've never heard of it but non-English language BDs are so rare, it's a treat just gettiing one. PCM Mono - Excellent!

#2 Posted: 18-09-2008 21:54

Rossyross
Member
Posts: 185

Originally Posted by tonyleung:

Is this any good?

Well, obviously this is all down to personal taste, but it is regarded as a masterpiece.

#3 Posted: 19-09-2008 09:00
Michael Brooke Member Posts: 650	More to the point, its creative use of colour remains pretty much unique to this day - and will probably remain so, since no-one in the CGI era is going to go to the lengths that Antonioni did.

#4 Posted: 19-09-2008 10:27
Rossyross Member Posts: 185	Previous releases on VHS and DVD suffered from faded colour or botched colour timing of the print. Apparently this was transferred from the original negatives in Rome by a technician who knew exactly what he was doing. For cineastes, this should be a contender for DVD of the year.

#5 Posted: 19-09-2008 12:05

Robert Thomas
Gun crazy
Posts: 132

"Red Desert" was Antonioni's first film in colour. I wouldn't rank it as high as the previous trilogy (L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse) or what he achieved with Blow Up or The Passenger. It's a little flawed, with a weaker argument compared to these movies and it's more or less a work of transition.

However, the photography is magnificent, with an impressive use of colour and I got to acknowledge that "lesser Antonioni film" is one of the sweetest insults one can imagine.

#6 Posted: 19-09-2008 12:31
tonyleung Member Posts: 854	Thanks guys. It does sound good.

#7 Posted: 17-10-2008 16:51
DaveF Administrator Posts: 2318	This has been pushed back a week to 27th Oct.

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