Zabriskie Point

[Antoine Doinel]

The fact that Warner presumably will include this info (some dude in the marketing department discovered on imdb) on the back cover is proof they couldn´t care less about Zabriskie Point.

That marketing dude should've checked wikipedia because according to them, he's one of the people arrested after the student protest. [-X

[ellipsis7]

If the materials are as good as those used for the Warner France release and Warner USA do a proper anamorphic transfer, then it will be worth having...

Harrison Ford not in ZABRISKIE POINT...

[Barmy]

Harrison is NOT in the jail scene. :^o I gur-an-tee it! =;

[zedz]

Christ, I added the Harrison Ford info to imdb when I was twelve years old, after reading it in an unauthorized Harrison Ford biography ( ). I doubt it´s true, as I don´t think anyone has ever managed to spot him in the movie.

This sounds like a Chinese Whispers distortion of Ford's original casting in Model Shop (all Californian sojourns by European auteurs being pretty much equivalent if you're coming from the perspective that a split-second glimpse of an American star is more important than the film itself).

[Richard--W]

A widescreen, anamorphic and fully restored Zabriskie Point will be released in the U.K. May 25, I think by the BFI.
Warner Home Video will release the same restoration in the USA June 30.

Masters of Cinema will release Il Grido in the U.K. May 25, which should finally put the mediocre Kino into retirement forever.

The last year and a half has been good for Antonioni enthusiasts.

[ellipsis7]

A widescreen, anamorphic and fully restored Zabriskie Point will be released in the U.K. May 25, I think by the BFI.

This would be great, but it's the first I've heard of it... Source?...

[HerrSchreck]

The only thing I can turn up is the R1 "Directors Showcase" Take Four edition coming in May mentioned already

[url=http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/70021/directors%E2%80%99-showcase-take-four-r1-in-may.html]Directors’ Showcase: Take Four (R1) in May[/url]

The films have all-new transfers and select titles include bonus features such as introductions and interviews. Each title will sell individually for $19.97 SRP.

Zabriskie Point (1970)
Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni (Blowup) directs his first American film: a surreal view of late ’60s America, as seen through the portrayal of two of its children. Sometime secretary Daria is working for a developer (Rod Taylor) building a village in the California desert, while dropout Mark is running from the authorities for allegedly killing a policeman during a student riot. Their lives intersect at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley with an explosive finale. Harrison Ford has an uncredited part as an airport worker, and the soundtrack features music from various artists, including Pink Floyd, The Youngbloods, The Kaleidoscope, Jerry Garcia, Patti Page, and the Grateful Dead.

DVD Special Features:
Theatrical trailer

[MichaelB]

A widescreen, anamorphic and fully restored Zabriskie Point will be released in the U.K. May 25, I think by the BFI.

This would be great, but it's the first I've heard of it... Source?...

It's also the first the BFI has heard of it - I checked with BFI DVD Publishing's technical supervisor, who signs off every transfer.

So it may be coming out in May, but it certainly won't be from the BFI.

[ellipsis7]

WARNER Germany are putting out a PAL version (seems to be 16:9 Anamorphic, hopefully of 2.35:1 image) on 22nd May, appears to a generic European release with oodles of soundtrack and subtitle options including original English....

Format: Dolby, PAL
Sprache: Spanisch (Dolby Digital 1.0), Deutsch (Dolby Digital 1.0), Ungarisch (Dolby Digital 1.0), Italienisch (Dolby Digital 1.0), Englisch (Dolby Digital 1.0)
Untertitel: Spanisch, Italienisch, Portugiesisch, Rumänisch, Kroatisch, Norwegisch, Schwedisch, Bulgarisch, Hebräisch, Polnisch, Finnisch, Russisch, Griechisch, Ungarisch
Bildseitenformat: 16:9
FSK: Freigegeben ab 16 Jahren
Studio: Warner Home Video - DVD
DVD-Erscheinungstermin: 22. Mai 2009
Spieldauer: 109 Minuten

Amazon give upcoming US R1 as R/T 110 mins while this German R 2 shows as 109 minutes (maybe a different version - uncut?).... Originally film released as 110 mins.... Certainly the German version is showing an 'Advisory' FSK 16 Cert...



Recent Warner France non-anamorphic 2.35:1 release runs 107 mins with 'Interdit aux moins de 16 ans' Cert...

BBFC site reveals no imminent Warner UK release, but evidence of cuts for original release...

ZABRISKIE POINT Feature Film
Classified 03 March, 1970 . Run Time
Not Known
Classification: 'X'
Consumer Advice: No consumer advice is available for this work
This work was cut. To obtain this category cuts were required but details are not available

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
The cast for this work includes: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Paul Fix, G. D. Spradlin, Bill Garaway, Kathleen Cleaver, Rod Taylor, Harrison Ford.

When submitted to the BBFC the work had a running time of 111m 1s

Warner US rated 'R' (17 cert?) and now found these specs on DVD Empire, giving R/T 114 mins - so universally the new DVDs seem to be alonger cut...

Features:

Theatrical Trailer
Video:
Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Mono
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Mono

Studio: Warner Bros.
Production Year: 1970
Release Date: 5/26/2009

Length: 114 mins
Rating: R

Item Code: 1000043081
UPC Code: 883929039302

[martin]

I'm looking forward to Zabriskie Point from Warner, and will probabluy get both R1 and the new German R2.

By the way, I just checked the timing of my Zabriskie-disc recorded from TCM Europe. It's 111 minutes 26 seconds PAL (maybe with PAL speedup unless the videotransfer used for the brodcast came from an NTSC source converted to PAL). I also checked some Antonioni books for the length of Zabriskie Point, and Rohdie, Chatman, and Time Out Film Guide all says 110 minutes. Maltins Movieguide says 112 min.

[Jack Phillips]

Restoration credits, perhaps?

[Person]

Restoration credits, perhaps?

Maybe there's an epilogue which describes how America is being quietly closed down as the world leaders head underground to safety before venom pours from the sky before the age of no sunrises.

[Barmy]

That footage is around, and is on the print(s) I've seen over the last few years. Does the French DVD have that noxious Orbison music at the end?

[ellipsis7]

Yes the French DVD has Orbison at the close... (as does the pan & scan German Complete Video ZP released last year also R/T 107 min)...

The original outtakes of the ZP music sessions do exist - nearly an hour of 'newly discovered' ZP outtakes by Jerry Garcia and Pink Floyd were included on the 2nd disc of the soundtrack CD released in 1997...

[Faux Hulot]

The original outtakes of the ZP music sessions do exist - nearly an hour of 'newly discovered' ZP outtakes by Jerry Garcia and Pink Floyd were included on the 2nd disc of the soundtrack CD released in 1997...

Not to mention this:

[Barmy]

I'm sorry to hear that the French DVD has the Orbison. That doesn't bode well for the US DVD. It's only a few seconds of music, but it's better to just turn the sound off, I guess.

[ellipsis7]

That's what I'm saying; French & 1st German ZP both run 107 mins (PAL) (and have the Orbison) - Warner US & Warner Germany upcoming ZPs running times billed as 114min (NTSC) & 109 min (PAL), maybe from a slightly longer version of ZP (maybe without Orbison)... Anyway we'll have to wait and see...

[Wittsdream]

Restoration credits, perhaps?

Maybe there's an epilogue which describes how America is being quietly closed down as the world leaders head underground to safety before venom pours from the sky before the age of no sunrises.

Pointedly, ZP is probably not too far from the underground safe haven, to which you allude, where most of these demons of commerce will be headed when TSHTF!

Antonioni and Kubrick: two visionaries whose grasp of these pernicious forces at work grows even more prescient by the month!

[martin]

Does anyone else see the final image in ZP (the sunset) as a comment on (or reference to) the "Bank of America" billboard seen earlier in the film? I sure do but maybe I'm pushing things a little bit?

Images can be seen at the bottom of my Zabriskie Point-page.

[ellipsis7]

Your juxtaposition is persuasive - does suggest a deliberate interplay and cross reference - an ironical sun setting on capitalism maybe ("The things you can depend on")... There's lots of things like this in ZP - in the explosion montage, an issue of LOOK magazine (it had done a feature on ZP), is fleetingly glimpsed flying through the air, as the journalist had particularly annoyed Antonioni...

[ellipsis7]

No it doesn't. For one thing the BoA signage is framed within red and Blue, and the color repetition is only repeated when Daria and Mark return to the "surface" and he's confronted by the cops. At which point Antonioni marks red as the domninant color.

I think A is very precise with the color signalling, paricularly in relation to Mark's scenes in the movie.

Certainly so... (relates also to Bruce Block's current work on visual structure)... But could surely be perceived like this... BoA signage poster of sunset is restrictively constrained by the red and blue framing, it is a contrived image of 'paradise' and the promise of materialism, Daria and Mark are then 'freed' of these inhibitions, strictures (and indeed colour framing) in the desert, the framing return when as you say, David, Daria and Mark 'return to the "surface"' reentering the predominant social structures, he to be confronted and killed by the cops... Daria then imagines or actually triggers the explosion a real and fantasised destruction of materialist and capitalist values... MA ends on a shot of the sunset, now freed of that framing, allegory or rather metonym for Daria's freedom in life and Mark's in death....

BTW Daria's still out there....

[colinr0380]

...and as radiant as ever!

[Barmy]

I read the sunset as dawn, but maybe it's Orbison's fault

Dawn comes up so young, dreams begin so young
And if you live just for today the day may soon be done
But there's a place where dreams always stay so young

A place to hear the sun go down and fade away
To see the wind just run away with yesterday
Anyplace for those who care Zabriskie Point is anywhere
Time runs out so fast on love too good to last, so young

A time to look forever's there or never found
To touch the sky and really feel the world go round
To live to love to laugh to cry to be alone
Young, so young love was meant to be wild and free
So young young,so young love is space in life
A place in time a state of mind too late I find
When tomorrow's gone and love is lost so young

[ellipsis7]

I read the sunset as dawn, but maybe it's Orbison's fault

Dawn comes up so young....

...A place to hear the sun go down and fade away...

Even Orbison isn't clear - the sun rises and sets in the same song!... I figure as it's daytime when the house explodes, it's dusk thereafter...

[Barmy]

I think in the Orbison version the song "fades" in line 4 (how clever ), at the word "place". Yes, temporally it is sunset but it's a happy dawn-like ending (for me).