Zabriskie Point by Michelangelo Antonioni - 1757 Words

Thesis: The use of silence in Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point is a reflection of his signature themes of alienation, inability to communicate, sexuality, and the focus on the psychology of the characters, not action and his signature style of the focus on objects instead of people and long tracking and panning shots. Zabriskie Point is a film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1970. The film follows Mark, a college dropout, and Daria, an anthropology student. The use of silence is seen continuously throughout the film. The themes seen in Zabriskie Point that are common of Antonioni include sexuality, inability to communicate, alienation, and the focus on the psychology of characters, not action. The style of Antonioni that is seen in Zabriskie Point include the focus of objects instead of people and long tracking and panning shots. Antonioni’s themes and style are shaped by the use of silence in Zabriskie Point. In Zabriskie Point the main focus of the film is on Daria who eventually meets Mark. Mark is active in campus protests. While participating in a campus protests the police tear-gas some of the protestors to break up the protest. Mark almost shoots a police officer, but someone else shoots the officer first. Mark escapes before the police could arrest him. After fleeing the protest Mark takes a bus to a town with a small airport, steals a plane, and flies out to the desert. While Mark is participating in protests and stealing a plane Daria is in her car