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First part of the unofficial "Incommunicability Trilogy" with La notte and L'eclisse. Michelangelo Antonioni didn't make the three movies as a trilogy, but cinema historians have called it so since then.
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At its premiere at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, this was booed so much to the extent that Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti fled the theater. However, after the second screening there was a complete turn around in how it was perceived and it was awarded the Special Jury Prize, going on to become a landmark of European cinema.
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After it was initially met with derision, 35 critics rallied and published a defense which helped elevate the film's reputation.
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The rocky Aeolian island on which the first portion of the film was made - its name is Lisca Bianca - didn't have electricity or running water and was subject to violent weather, including a tornado. At one point, the crew found themselves completely stranded on the island.
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During filming, actress Lea Massari had a heart attack that put her in a coma for two days.
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The company financing the film went bankrupt during production, forcing a strike by the unpaid crew.
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The boat which the main characters holiday on was seized by the owner for non-payment. This is why the boat appears to be bigger in some scenes as the replacement that Antonioni procured was actually a little larger.
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During its notorious first showing at Cannes, one scene in particular drew specific derision. It is the scene when Monica Vitti rushes down a corridor looking for someone. Audience members were repeatedly shouting "Cut" during this lengthy scene.
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In Italian, "l'avventura" not only means an adventure but also has the more subtle meaning of a fling, which of course is something else that happens in the film.
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Antonioni set out to make a film on the instability of emotions and described his film as a detective story back to front.
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The film was censored heavily because of its alleged immorality. Two of the love scenes were considerably edited and others were obscured by on-screen masking devices. Antonioni was officially charged with obscenity and immorality, although the charges were later dismissed.
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Despite its critical mauling at its first showing at the Cannes Film Festival, two years later "L'Avventura" was declared by Sight and Sound as the second best film of all time, right behind "Citizen Kane" (1941).
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When it opened in Paris, it set box office records, while it received a "Condemned" rating from the National League of Decency when it opened in the US.
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Spoilers
Antonioni had no interest in revealing what really happened to Anna - instead he was more concerned in the character of Claudia and her quest to find herself.
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