The confusions and pretensions surely derived from the awe with which the studio regarded their Michelangelo, but it is evident in the array of screenwriters—Antonioni himself, Tonino Guerra (his regular), plus Fred Gardner, Sam Shepard, and Clare Peploe. Then you have to deal with the dumb Adam-and-Eve-like beauty of the raw leads—Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin—who simply could not act. And so the preparation became a weird mixture of consultations with Black Panthers and the creation of superb and insane Ozymandian houses in the desert, with sets by the very skilled Dean Tavoularis.
Two kids go on the lam from student politics and the very vague oppression of Americana and head for the desert. In fact, the vestiges of plot and narrative dialogue are so embarrassing that you train your sensibility to gaze past them at the distance, the shapes, and light. And that is where the film is. It would have been so much more coherent if Antonioni had been free of script or actors, and if he and cameraman Alfio Contini had just been let loose in the Southwest.
There is an orgy at Zabriskie Point itself, though orgy is a generous word for a director who closed his eyes in despair at the thought of sexual congress. Perhaps he did it to please his desperate studio who were just eager to get a bunch of kids out of their clothes and into the dust. Still, there are moments in that sequence in which the lovers begin to resemble the ashen ecstasies from Pompeii—I think of Rossellini’s Journey to Italy, and the dogged resistance in American melodrama to what you might call novelistic cinema.
I would not include the film here—despite my attachment to Antonioni—but for the ending. With Pink Floyd’s music, we see the repeated explosion of one of the desert mansions—and not just the blooming fire and smoke but also the prolonged, distended scattering of all the interior things in the house—clothes fluttering from closets, provisions bursting out of refrigerators, the pages of books riffling in the breeze (or in the water where these scenes were filmed). This rhapsody could stand alone—it should—as a magnificent short film, and a single denunciation of the collected television commercials of fifty years. In the montage of American movie, there have to be moments from this aria on disruption. Metro got their money’s worth—even if their innocence remained intact.
Chronology
1895
L’Arrosseur Arrossé
1903
The Great Train Robbery
1913
Fantômas
1914
Tillie’s Punctured Romance
1915
The Birth of a Nation
1916
Intolerance
1917
Thomas Graal’s Best Film
1918
The Outlaw and His Wife
1919
Broken Blossoms
J’Accuse
Male and Female
1920
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Erotikon
Way Down East
1921
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Tol’able David
The Wild Cat
1922
Dr. Mabuse the Gambler
Foolish Wives
Nosferatu
Orphans of the Storm
Robin Hood
1923
The Covered Wagon
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Safety Last!
The Ten Commandments
A Woman of Paris
1924
Greed
He Who Gets Slapped
The Iron Horse
The Last Laugh
The Navigator
Die Nibelungen
Sherlock Jr.
The Thief of Bagdad
Wild Oranges
1925
Battleship Potemkin
Ben-Hur
The Big Parade
The Gold Rush
The Joyless Street
Lady of the Night
Master of the House
The Merry Widow
The Phantom of the Opera
Seven Chances
Strike
1926
Faust
Flesh and the Devil
Mare Nostrum
The Son of the Sheik
Sparrows
The Temptress
What Price Glory?
The Winning of Barbara Worth
1927
The General
It
The Italian Straw Hat
London After Midnight
The Man with a Movie Camera
Metropolis
Napoleon
7th Heaven
Sunrise
Underworld
The Unknown
Wings
1928
Un Chien Andalou
The Crowd
Lonesome
La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc
Queen Kelly
Sadie Thompson
Show People
The Wind
1929
Applause
Blackmail
The Love Parade
Pandora’s Box
People on Sunday
1930
L’ge d’Or
All Quiet on the Western Front
Anna Christie
The Blue Angel
Earth
Hell’s Angel’s
Morocco
1931
The Champ
La Chienne
City Lights
City Streets
Dracula
Frankenstein
Kameradschaft
M
Le Million
Platinum Blonde
Public Enemy
Que Viva Mexico
Street Scene
Tabu
The Threepenny Opera
Waterloo Bridge
1932
Boudu Sauvé des Eaux
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Freaks
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
I Was Born But…
Liebelei
Love Me Tonight
The Music Box
Red Dust
Red-Headed Woman
Scarface
Shanghai Express
The Sign of the Cross
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Trouble in Paradise
Vampyr
What Price Hollywood?
1933
Baby Face
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
Dancing Lady
Dinner at Eight
Duck Soup
Exstase
42nd Street
The Gold Diggers of 1933
King Kong
Little Women
Outskirts
1934
L’Atalante
Imitation of Life
It Happened One Night
Judge Priest
The Merry Widow
Of Human Bondage
Our Daily Bread
The Scarlet Empress
La Signora di Tutti
Tarzan and His Mate
The Thin Man
Toni
Treasure Island
Twentieth Century
1935
Alice Adams
Bride of Frankenstein
David Copperfield
The Devil Is a Woman
The Informer
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Mutiny on the Bounty
A Night at the Opera
Peter Ibbetson
Ruggles of Red Gap
Steamboat Round the Bend
Sylvia Scarlett
A Tale of Two Cities
The 39 Steps
Top Hat
1936
Camille
Come and Get It
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange
Desire
Dodsworth
Fury
The Great Ziegfeld
Modern Times
Mr. Deeds
Goes to Town
My Man Godfrey
Une Partie de Campagne
The Petrified Forest
San Francisco
Show Boat
Swing Time
1937
The Awful Truth
Black Legion
Un Carnet de Bal
Easy Living
The Good Earth
La Grande Illusion
History Is Made at Night
The Life of Emile Zola
Make Way for Tomorrow
Mannequin
Nothing Sacred
Pépé le Moko
The Prisoner of Zenda
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Stage Door
A Star Is Born
Stella Dallas
Swing High, Swing Low
You Only Live Once
1938
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Alexander Nevsky
Angels with Dirty Faces
The Baker’s Wife
Bringing Up Baby
Carefree
Holiday
Jezebel
The Lady Vanishes
La Marseillaise
Pygmalion
Quai des Brumes
Three Comrades
You Can’t Take It with You
1939
Dark Victory
Destry Rides Again
Gone With the Wind
Gunga Din
Le Jour Se Lève
Love Affair
Midnight
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Only Angels Have Wings
The Rules of the Game
Stagecoach
The Stars Look Down
The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums
The Wizard of Oz
The Women
Wuthering Heights
Young Mr. Lincoln
1940
The Bank Dick
Broadway Melody of 1940
Fantasia
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Dictator
The Great McGinty
His Girl Friday
The Letter
The Mortal Storm
The Philadelphia Story
Rebecca
The Shop Around the Corner
They Drive by Night
The Thief of Bagdad
1941
Ball of Fire
Citizen Kane
High Sierra
Hold Back the Dawn
How Green Was My Valley
The Lady Eve
The Little Foxes
The Maltese Falcon
Man Hunt
Meet John Doe
Penny Serenade
That Hamilton Woman
Two-Faced Woman
1942
Bambi
Casablanca
Cat People
Gentleman Jim
The Hard Way
The Magnificent Ambersons
Now, Voyager
Ossessione
The Palm Beach Story
Sullivan’s Travels
To Be or Not To Be
Went the Day Well?
Woman of the Year
Yankee Doodle Dandy
1943
Air Force
Cabin in the Sky
Day of Wrath
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Hail the Conquering Hero
Hangmen Also Die!
I Walked with a Zombie
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Lumière d’Été
The More the Merrier
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Seventh Victim
Shadow of a Doubt
1944
An American Romance
Cover Girl
Double Indemnity
Frenzy
Gaslight
Going My Way
Henry V
Laura
Meet me in St. Louis
Ministry of Fear
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
Mr. Skeffington
Phantom Lady
Since You Went Away
To Have and Have Not
The Woman in the Window
1945
Brief Encounter
The Clock
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
Detour
Les Enfants du Paradis
I Know Where I’m Going
Ivan the Terrible
Leave Her to Heaven
The Lost Weekend
Mildred Pierce
Open City
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Scarlet Street
Spellbound
The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry
They Were Expendable
1946
La Belle et la Bête
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Sleep
The Chase
Diary of a Chambermaid
Duel in the Sun
Gilda
Great Expectations
Humoresque
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Killers
A Matter of Life and Death
My Darling Clementine
Notorious
The Outlaw
Paisan
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Shoeshine
1947
Body and Soul
Brighton Rock
The Cat Concerto
Crossfire
Daisy Kenyon
Le Diable au Corps
It Always Rains on Sunday
Kiss of Death
The Lost Moment
Monsieur Verdoux
Odd Man Out
Out of the Past
Pursued
Quai des Orfèvres
La Terra Trema
They Made Me a Fugitive
1948
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Act of Violence
L’Amore
Bicycle Thieves
The Boy with Green Hair
Drunken Angel
The Fallen Idol
Force of Evil
Fort Apache
Germany Year Zero
Hamlet
Key Largo
The Lady from Shanghai
Letter from an Unknown Woman
Maclovia
The Naked City
Oliver Twist
Raw Deal
Red River
The Red Shoes
Rope
The Snake Pit
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Unfaithfully Yours
1949
Adam’s Rib
All the King’s Men
Caught
Colorado Territory
Criss Cross
The Fountainhead
The Heiress
I Was a Male War Bride
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Late Spring
Portrait of Jennie
The Queen of Spades
The Reckless Moment
Samson and Delilah
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Une Si Jolie Petite Plage
Le Silence de la Mer
The Small Back Room
Stromboli
They Live by Night
The Third Man
Twelve O’Clock High
Under Capricorn
Whisky Galore!
White Heat
1950
All About Eve
The Asphalt Jungle
Born Yesterday
D.O.A.
The Elusive Pimpernel
Les Enfants Terribles
Gone to Earth
Gun Crazy
In a Lonely Place
Miss Julie
Night and the City
No Man of Her Own
Los Olvidados
Orphée
Outcast
of the Islands
Rashomon
La Ronde
Sunset Blvd.
Wagon Master
Winchester ’73
1951
Ace in the Hole
The African Queen
An American in Paris
Diary of a Country Priest
M
A Place in the Sun
The Prowler
The River
Strangers on a Train
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Tales of Hoffmann
Der Verlorene
1952
Angel Face
The Bad and the Beautiful
Carrie
Casque d’Or
Europa ’51
Forbidden Games
High Noon
Julius Caesar
The Lavender Hill Mob
The Life of Oharu
Limelight
Living
The Lusty Men
Monkey Business
Othello
The Quiet Man
Rancho Notorious
Robinson Crusoe
Singin’ in the Rain
Umberto D.
Viva Zapata!
1953
The Band Wagon
The Big Heat
From Here to Eternity
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The Golden Coach
Journey to Italy
Madame de…
M. Hulot’s Holiday
Pickup on South Street
Roman Holiday
Sawdust and Tinsel
Shane
Thérèse Raquin
Tokyo Story
Ugetsu Monogatari
I Vitelloni
The Wages of Fear
1954
Anatahan
Apache
Bad Day at Black Rock
The Barefoot Contessa
Beat the Devil
Carmen Jones
Dial M for Murder
The Glenn Miller Story
Johnny Guitar
Knave of Hearts
On the Waterfront
La Paura
Rear Window
Sansho the Bailiff
'Have You Seen...?' Page 160
