Zabriskie Point

Antonioni's deadly cinematic desire

It's not decorations or photoshop, it's a place on Earth located in less realistic one - Death Valley, Eastern California, USA. It used to be a lake which dried up 5 millions years ago, leaving this erosional landscape, and now it is one of the hottest places in the world, deserted, quiet and that's why extremely beautiful.

Oksana Belousova

CEO & Founder of MY KINOROOM, Film Director

No wonder it became a filming location, even Michelangelo Antonioni couldn't resist the cinematic desire to make a film here and in 1970 "Zabriskie Point" was released, but surprisingly it became a huge commercial failure despite Antonioni's well-established name and a USA box office hit of his previous film "Blowup" (1966). It took "Zabriskie Point" a long time to be recognised.

One of the main claims was that the film was too anti-American regarding both the plot and the image of American hippie-era and growing consuming society with advertisements everywhere, but the time passed and this image became iconic portrait of America of 1960s, so Antonioni was quite observant.

Moreover, the story of the main character is based on true events which Antonioni read a short newspaper article about while he was in the USA, the rest of the script was worked out with a team of scriptwriters. But when it came to casting, Antonioni spent a year looking for his character until his casting director recommended him young Mark Frechette who she witnessed fighting at a bus stop. That's how a non-actor got the leading role as an innocent student pursued by the police for the murder of a policeman during a college uprising.

Mark Frechette would have become American Alain Delon, if he hadn't joined the 27 club, but at least we have a good film with him which ironicly didn't lose its relevance to the present life of young generation who wants its right to be free.