This film closes on Thursday, October 30th.

IFI CLASSIC

Following the success of Blow Up (1966), Antonioni had the opportunity to tell an American story and was inspired by a newspaper article he had read about a youth who had stolen an airplane in Phoenix. Roping Sam Shepard in to help with the script and heavily bankrolled by MGM, Antonioni embarked on the troubled production of a film that would examine the pervasive nature of big business, sympathise with student protests and the counter culture, feature a prolonged orgiastic love scene, include breathtaking panoramas of Death Valley and the Arizona desert, have a striking soundtrack provided by Pink Floyd, Jerry Garcia and John Fahey, and climax with a mind-blowing explosion.

The FBI watched him all the way, the film was dismissed by critics and blanked by audiences on release and it was to be Antonioni’s sole American venture; yet the ravishing beauty and admirable ambition of Zabriskie Point endures. (Notes by Michael Hayden.)

★★★★★ The Guardian

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