I saw another movie the day I saw Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, and the other movie had better performances (the acting is pretty terrible in Zabriskie - these two win the prize for most awkward non-actors who have to pretend there's chemistry between them), a more cohesive story and conventional storytelling, and lacked the occasional ludicrous turn of events we get in Zabriskie (the aeroplane business, described below - spoilers!), but something tells me in a few weeks i'll have forgotten everything about the other movie, but I could see a hundred other movies now and i'll still be able to virtually recount for you the whole of Zabriskie Point, shot for shot.
Each of these sequences are burned on my brain - oh the lovely pictures!
I can't recommend strongly enough, though, that you don't make this your initiation to Antonioni - you won't like it. If you're curious, check out L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert, The Passenger or Blow up - any of which are more welcoming for a first-timer. If you're an Antonioni fan (if you get into those other films), then Zabriskie Point will be essential viewing. This is because to really love this kind of Antonioni you have to forget about narrative - and even, by this point, character. In the Italian films (before Blow up), character was just as important as composition - but all that seemed to matter to Antonioni here was the canvas - and that canvas is more stunning probably than in any other of his films. Zabriskie Point is a stunningly beautiful film to watch.
On the surface, though (story, character), this movie is just plain weird: the first half hour harks back to Antonioni's documentarian roots. Especially the scenes of demonstrations that turn to violence. I really felt i was IN 1960's America. But his documentarian leanings don't even come close to his artist's eye. As you can imagine, this is quite a conflict for Antonioni - and his artistic side overcomes him in Zabriskie Point - and the winners are film buffs, for the visual delights are plentiful! But as a result, you have to make concessions as far as "story," "character" and even "themes" go. As I was saying, the first half-hour is like a doco made by a guy who delights in images... but then we get to a certain point when Mark steals the plane and Dario starts driving across the desert in her car when Antonioni throws caution (and reality) to the wind. With no warning or explanation, all of a sudden this student radical turns into an aeroplane stunt-pilot, performing dare-devil tricks swooping right down close to the highway, almost crashing into Daria's car. Why does he do this? Simply because Antonioni liked the look of the plane swooping through the sky and swooping down to the desert road. And he was right - its a marvellous scene, but you have to throw reality out the window.
A lot of the dialogue betrays a serious ignorance of America: little things like Daria's calling up her boss from a payphone in the desert and saying she's looking for a place "something ville, or maybe something town... Do you know it?" And then, horror of horrors (and the audience i saw it with giggled at this unintentional joke), her boss pulls out a street directory.
There are many superb sequences: the credits montage is wonderful, as is the entire opening scene, where the camera's seeming to struggle to find who's speaking in a classroom scene conveys how difficult it was for each face in the crowd to be heard. The end of the Zabriskie Point sequence ends up being quite wonderful,
You've also got to be prepared for some shaky camerawork. This was not normally a part of Antonioni's oeuvre, but it shows up here to convey the unrest of America at the time. Any thematic material is conveyed abstractly - which is why you need to be initiated into Antonioni's way of cinema
Conclusion: unratable, i think. I love it, but not for the reasons you'll hate it. Essential viewing for Antonioni fans.
Each of these sequences are burned on my brain - oh the lovely pictures!
I can't recommend strongly enough, though, that you don't make this your initiation to Antonioni - you won't like it. If you're curious, check out L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert, The Passenger or Blow up - any of which are more welcoming for a first-timer. If you're an Antonioni fan (if you get into those other films), then Zabriskie Point will be essential viewing. This is because to really love this kind of Antonioni you have to forget about narrative - and even, by this point, character. In the Italian films (before Blow up), character was just as important as composition - but all that seemed to matter to Antonioni here was the canvas - and that canvas is more stunning probably than in any other of his films. Zabriskie Point is a stunningly beautiful film to watch.
On the surface, though (story, character), this movie is just plain weird: the first half hour harks back to Antonioni's documentarian roots. Especially the scenes of demonstrations that turn to violence. I really felt i was IN 1960's America. But his documentarian leanings don't even come close to his artist's eye. As you can imagine, this is quite a conflict for Antonioni - and his artistic side overcomes him in Zabriskie Point - and the winners are film buffs, for the visual delights are plentiful! But as a result, you have to make concessions as far as "story," "character" and even "themes" go. As I was saying, the first half-hour is like a doco made by a guy who delights in images... but then we get to a certain point when Mark steals the plane and Dario starts driving across the desert in her car when Antonioni throws caution (and reality) to the wind. With no warning or explanation, all of a sudden this student radical turns into an aeroplane stunt-pilot, performing dare-devil tricks swooping right down close to the highway, almost crashing into Daria's car. Why does he do this? Simply because Antonioni liked the look of the plane swooping through the sky and swooping down to the desert road. And he was right - its a marvellous scene, but you have to throw reality out the window.
A lot of the dialogue betrays a serious ignorance of America: little things like Daria's calling up her boss from a payphone in the desert and saying she's looking for a place "something ville, or maybe something town... Do you know it?" And then, horror of horrors (and the audience i saw it with giggled at this unintentional joke), her boss pulls out a street directory.
There are many superb sequences: the credits montage is wonderful, as is the entire opening scene, where the camera's seeming to struggle to find who's speaking in a classroom scene conveys how difficult it was for each face in the crowd to be heard. The end of the Zabriskie Point sequence ends up being quite wonderful,
You've also got to be prepared for some shaky camerawork. This was not normally a part of Antonioni's oeuvre, but it shows up here to convey the unrest of America at the time. Any thematic material is conveyed abstractly - which is why you need to be initiated into Antonioni's way of cinema
Conclusion: unratable, i think. I love it, but not for the reasons you'll hate it. Essential viewing for Antonioni fans.