Identificazione di una donna (Identification of a woman)

By the eighties, for Antonioni to make a love story is necessarily to make a mystery, as well as a bit of science fiction. Identification of a Woman centers around an improbability: Niccolo, a film director, is searching for both the perfect star for “a film in the form of a woman,” and the perfect woman in his life. But an irony that Antonioni suggests in Le amiche is here confirmed: a perfect woman does not need a man. Niccolo’s relationship with the beautiful Mavi is further haunted by threats from a mysterious and powerful individual who wants her back, and by a general mood of corruption and paranoia that pervades her milieu and class. Then there is the sun, which is expanding, threatening Earth’s very existence. And the fog, making sight and insight impossible. And we’re back in Red Desert territory, the orb coming full circle in this complex film that ends with an open question: “And then?”