Sunday 12 February 2023, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: Zabriskie Point * 1970 * Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni * 107 minutes * In English. Doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30.
An epic portrait of late-sixties America as seen through the lives of two of its children: anthropology student Daria (who’s helping a property developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert) and dropout Mark (who’s wanted by the authorities because he is suspected of killing a policeman during a student riot). They meet and end up on a journey to the end of the American dream.
This film got a lot of critical flack when it came out, but many now consider it a cult classic. But then again most of the negative reviews for this movie came from Americans, and not Europeans. Most people I talked to about it in America thought it was shit. I guess that’s natural, since the entire movie goes against the grain of the American way of life. But if you talk to a guy in a shop in Brussels about it, he says “wow, it’s such a beeeaauutiful movie!” And indeed the ending is nothing short of monumental, a poetic ballet of destruction unmatched anywhere else in cinema history. It’s a love it or hate it kind of film for sure, but those who have seen it have never forgotten it and it has stayed alive in the hearts of film lovers across the world…. it’s visually stunning. It’s a film that didn’t play according to the rules, and today it is an amazing postcard from a bygone era, ending with one of the most dazzling climaxes in cinema history.
WARNING: If you ever were going to watch this film on your goddamn laptop or flat screen the film wouldn’t make any sense. This film is a moving painting designed to be shown in a theatre where images can dominate the story! You have to soak in these images. With music by Pink Floyd and other 60s counter-culture icons that helps to psych-out the desert landscape.
P.S. We will be screening the ultra-rare version with the original soundmix, that includes in a Pink Floyd psychedelic burst at the very end (instead of a Roy Orbison love song).
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net
