Red Desert (Il Deserto rosso, 1964) tells the story of Giuliana (Monica Vitti), a young married woman suffering a mental and emotional crisis and embarking tentatively on an affair. Against post-war Italy's industrialised landscape – rendered both beautiful and apocalyptic by director Michelangelo Antonioni's unconventional approach to colour and sound – Giuliana is like an unsteady anchor to which we become totally attached. Vitti – Antonioni's lover and muse, and the star of his earlier films L'avventura, L'eclisse and La notte – gives a magnificent, startling performance. She is ably accompanied by Carlo Chionetti as her unemotional husband Ugo, and Richard Harris as Corrado, the restless associate of Ugo's who finds himself drawn to her.

Red Desert Antonioni's first film in colour, is a key film from the great Italian auteur, winning of the Golden Lion and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1965 Venice Film Festival. The film has, we are assured, never looked more beautiful than in the new high-definition restoration to be released by the BFI on UK Blu-ray and DVD on 20th October 2008. Both discs will feature a 1.85:1 picture (anamorphic on the DVD, 1080p on the Blu-ray). The DVD will have Dolby Digital mono audio (320 kbps) and the Blu-ray PCM mono audio (48k/16bit). Both editions will have the following features:

• Brand new restoration with new improved English subtitle translation;
• New full-feature commentary by Italian film scholar David Forgacs;
• Original trailer;
• Illustrated colour booklet containing newly commissioned essays, notes, and Antonioni's recollections of making Red Desert.

Red Desert will be priced at £19.99 for the DVD edition, £24.99 for the Blu-ray.