Love for an Idiot

1967 · Movie · 92 min. · Japan

An updated adaptation of Tanizaki's 1924 novel Naomi about a middle-aged factory engineer who trains, marries, and ultimately loses a teenage bride after she turns him into a slave to her whims. The intensity of his desire makes him a prototypical Masumura lunatic, and the creepy, quasi-abstract industrial landscapes evoke those of Antonioni - though similar shots are found in Masumura's 1959 Overflow, so any direct influence from Red Desert seems unlikely.

Direction Yasuzô Masumura

Cast Michiyo Oguso · Shoichi Ozawa · Masakazu Tamura · Sachiko Murase · Isao Kuraishi · Asao Uchida · Yuka Konno · Noriko Hodaka · Yuzo Hayakawa · Tetsuya Watanabe · Jun Osanai · Tamae Kyokawa · Daigo Inoue · Shin Minatsu