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Drama
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Zabriskie Point
1970 Pink Floyd
Zabriskie Point Michelangelo Antonioni's new film for MGM and his first to be shot in the United States, opens at the Theatre as one of the year's most anticipated motion picture events. Set against the sights and sounds of contemporary America, it is Antonioni's first film since the triumphant "Blow-Up."
It was the phenomenal success of "Blow-Up" that brought director Antonioni to the United States in the late Spring 1967. For six weeks he criss-crossed America: beginning in Los Angeles, he drove into the Mojave Desert where he discovered Zabriskie Point, a promontory overlooking the bed of Death Valley, and went on to Las Vegas, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Detroit, Cape Kennedy, Atlanta and Chicago.
He returned to Rome with a few notes and vivid impressions, convinced he must make a film in America. It would be set in the West and include the desolate yet beautiful Death Valley and a major American city. And it would be about young people for they touched him most deeply during his visit.
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Preparing for the film was as rigorous as the actual shooting. Besides the writing and technical aspects, Antonioni had to find two young leads. He found the girl first. He noticed her dancing briefly in an experimental film one night, asked to see her and within a week signed 19-year-old Dana Halprin, a Berkeley student, for Zabriskie Point
Finding the boy was much more difficult. After countless interviews with hopeful young men who responded to casting calls, an Antonioni scout found Mark Frechette, a 20-year-old sometime carpenter, at a bus stop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shouting at a man who had thrown a flower pot at a quarreling couple. After several interviews and a brief screen test, Mark had the part.
The third lead, that of an attorney, was set when Antonioni saw well known actor Rod Taylor lunching in a smart Los Angeles restaurant After watching him throughout the meal, Antonioni was convinced Taylor embodied the charm and sophistication he was seeking.
Zabriskie Point tells of three dissimilar people whose lives converge quite by accident, touching briefly in a way that changes each forever. The protagonists are oMark, a former student and part-time radical who steals a plane to flee Los Angeles; Dana, a beautiful and restless girl; and her employer, an attorney handling a real estate development project. While driving through the desert to a meeting with her employer at his desert home outside Phoenix, Dana meets Mark. Their affinity is immediate. The time they spend together in the desert, their parting and Dana's apocalyptic vision of America at the end are major elements of the film.
The locations for Zabriskie Point are as varied as the worlds of its leading characters. Beginning at a radical student meeting, the film jumps to several sections of Los Angeles, including the top of the impressive Mobil Oil Company building in the heart of the city, then moves on to the haunting beauty of Death Valley, looking at the desert from many angles, one of them the magnificent vista from the lookout which gives the film its title.
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THE CAST
Mark ............................... Mark Frechette
Dana ............................... Doria Halprin
Cafe Owner ............................... Paul Fix
Lee Allen's Associate ............................... G.D. Spradlin
Morty ............................... Bill Garaway
Kathleen ............................... Kathleen Cleaver
Lee Allen ............................... Rod Taylor
and
The Open Theatre of Joe Chaikin
THE CREDITS
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents
A Carlo Ponti Production
Michelangelo Antonioni's Film
Zabriskie Point
Written by
Michelangelo Antonioni, Fred Gardner, Sam Shepard, Tonino Guerra, Clare Peplo
Executive Producer ............................... Harrison Starr
Original Music Composed and Performed by ............................... Pink Floyd, Courtesy Harvest Records
Kaleidoscope ............................... Courtesy Epic Records
Jerry Garcia ............................... Courtesy the Grateful Dead and Warner Bros. Records
Other Songs Composed and Performed by (Alphabetical Order)
John Fahey - "Dance of Death"
Courtesy Takoma Records
The Grateful Dead - "Dark Star"
Courtesy Warner Bros. Records
Rolling Stones - "You Got the Silver"
Courtesy London Records
The Youngbloods - "Sugarbabe"
Courtesy RCA Victor Records
Songs Performed by...
Patti Page - "The Tennessee Waltz"
Courtesy Mercury Records
Roscoe Holcomb - "I Wish I Were A Single Girl Again"
Courtesy Folkways Records
Electronic Effects by ............................... Music Electronic Viva
Director of Photography ............................... Aiflo Contini
Production Designer ............................... Dean Tavoularis
Musical Advisor ............................... Don Hall
Recording Supervisor ............................... Franklin Milton
Special Effects ............................... Earl McCoy
Production Mixer ............................... Jerry Kosloff
Special Paint and Equipment ............................... Sinclair Bros.
Assistant Director ............................... Robert Rubin
Make Up ............................... Joe McKinney
Collaboration on Editing ............................... Franco Arca Ill
Assistant Editor ............................... Jim Benson
Script Supervisor ............................... Bonnie Prendergast
Production Assistant ............................... Sally Dennison
Assistant to the Director ............................... Rina Macrelli
Unit Production Manager ............................... Don Guest
Set Decorator ............................... George Nelson
Costume Design ............................... Ray Summers
Filmed in Panavision® and Metrocolor
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