Zabriskie Point
UW Cinematheque 821 University Ave., UW Vilas Hall, Room 4070, Madison, Wisconsin
press release: USA | 1970 | 35mm | 112 min.
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni; Cast: Mark Frechette, Daria Halprin, Rod Taylor
In one of the key films of its era, two neophyte actors play a pseudo-revolutionary and a secretary who meet in Death Valley, fall in love and dream of overthrowing the system. While their rebellion may be aimless, Antonioni’s critique of the Establishment and the imperialism of corporate capitalism is poignant and stinging. Zabriskie Point is a state-of-the-decade address portraying the conflicts of an America at war with itself. The literally explosive finale must be experienced on the big screen.
Our numerous and diverse Fall 2018 special presentations include a screening of an excellent vintage print of Roger Corman’s low-budget The Little Shop of Horrors; Douglas Sirk’s masterful melodrama All That Heaven Allows and Todd Hayne’s reworking of Sirk, Far from Heaven; rare 35mm prints of Antonioni’s counter-culture classic Zabriskie Point and Claire Denis sibling saga Nenette and Boni; a screening of the popular recent documentary The Eagle Huntress with producer Stacey Reiss in person; plus new digital restorations of two cult horror comedies from the early 1980s: Basket Case and Strange Behavior, as well as George Sluizer’s great thriller The Vanishing, Powell and Pressburger’s repressed nuns classic Black Narcissus, and the landmark independent Buddies, the first movie to depict the AIDS crisis.
All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.