Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on April 26, 2011 at 08:05:14

and despair. Giuliana, played by the astonishing Monica Vitti, is a young mother married to a successful businessman. Over the course of a few days, we witness her descent into a paralyzing neurosis made all the more poignant because she is desperately pursued by a colleague of her husband, the unctuous and unscrupulous Zeller (played by Richard Harris in a great Marlon Brando impersonation). The atmosphere of the industrialized and modern state is almost a character as portrayed in the amazing cinematography: time and again, images are framed that resemble abstract paintings.
The menace in Zeller's persistent assault on this defenseless woman is as terrible as any violent rape ever filmed.
Vitti's performance shows this beautiful woman was as talented as any: Giuliana is a modern-day Ophelia, but all the more pathetic because we're unaware of the cause of her illness. In an amazing scene, standing in stark contrast to the industrial waste and shipping dislocation and uncertainty that come before it, Antonioni transports us to a serene bay inhabited by a tanned Lolita enjoying the pink sand and turquoise waters.