Bicycle Thieves topped the first BFI Sight and Sound List of the Greatest Films of All Time, published in 1952. Vittorio De Sica’s portrait of an impoverished family, shot all across the real streets of Rome, was the perfect avatar for postwar italian cinema, which astonished audiences and made the cinema of carefully designed sets feel dated and fake in comparison.
So when the new Sight and Sound list arrived in ’62, the fact that Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura came two votes short of the #1 spot (and four votes ahead of Bicycle Thieves) signaled a shift in attitudes. De Sica’s neorealism was passé, patronizing, and obvious. Antonioni’s modernism was startlingly provocative, unresolved, and new. Red Desert in ’64 would cap off this series of films set in Italy with soon-to-be ex-partner Monica Vitti, and it challenged audiences more than ever. Critics loved it — but how does it stand up today? We talk about it.
Next week: Charulata (1964) by Satyajit Ray
Hosted by Zachary Domes (hetchy on letterboxd) and J Brooks Young (jyoun on letterboxd). Music by hetchy
