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Wednesday Night Cinema Society: Pollution

Wednesday, February 17, 2016 - 7:00pm
Studio C, 150 Communications Building (UCSC)
Presented by: 
Film and Digital Media

Focusing on a theme of "Pollution", the film this week includes: Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964).

In this enigmatic narrative film, the industrial landscape of a factory-filled, polluted Italian city becomes both a symbol and the material expression of the emotional anxiety, alienation, and distress of the main character, Guiliana. The superb cinematography, coupled with an unnerving sound design built around almost imperceivable high pitched tonal screeches, creates a toxic modern world in which the protagonist Giuliana, played by Antonioni muse Monica Vitti, suffers a nervous breakdown and shares her turmoil with her husband’s co-worker, Corrado (Richard Harris). Antonioni’s first color film is unforgettable for its use of color, and, in particular, for the putrid yellow smoke against a perpetually grey sky.

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During the winter quarter, the Wednesday Night Cinema Society will present works which deal with the urban landscape, exploring themes related to urban spatialities, human geography, the commons, gentrification, and the temporalities of change. This quarter’s programming is curated by UC Santa Cruz Film and Digital Media PhD student Samuael Topiary, and draws from her ongoing academic research on landscape, environmental urbanism, the commons, and utopian imaginaries.

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Free and open to the public
Parking $3 in Core West Parking Structure