The Thinking Machine #69

In their series The Thinking Machine, critics Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin create a new video essay for Filmkrant every month.

In 1969 Michelangelo Antonioni, during work on his American film Zabriskie Point, paid a visit to The Band and their producer John Simon, to hear the tape-in-progress of their (now legendary) second album. He listened impassively, responding enthusiastically to only one detail: the word “pistol” in the song ‘Across the Great Divide’. Antonioni never contacted The Band again; he gave the scoring job to Pink Floyd instead. But we can still imagine what Zabriskie Point might have been, if edited to this very different sound.