L'Avventura (1960)

A woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.

Director:

Michelangelo Antonioni

Writers:

Michelangelo Antonioni (story), Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay)

Stars:

Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, Lea Massari

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 6 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gabriele Ferzetti	...	Sandro
Monica Vitti	...	Claudia
Lea Massari	...	Anna
Dominique Blanchar	...	Giulia
Renzo Ricci	...	Anna's Father
James Addams	...	Corrado
Dorothy De Poliolo	...	Gloria Perkins
Lelio Luttazzi	...	Raimondo
Giovanni Petrucci	...	Prince Goffredo
Esmeralda Ruspoli	...	Patrizia
Enrico Bologna
Jack O'Connell	...	Old man on the island
Franco Cimino
Prof. Cucco	...	Ettore
Giovanni Danesi

Storyline

A group of rich Italians head out on a yachting trip to a deserted volcanic island in the Mediterranean. When they are about to leave the island, they find Anna, the main character up to this point, has gone missing. Sandro, Anna's boyfriend, and Claudia, Anna's friend, try without success to find her. While looking for the missing friend, Claudia and Sandro develop an attraction for each other. When they get back to land, they continue the search with no success. Sandro and Claudia proceed to become lovers, and all but forget about the missing Anna.

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Plot Keywords:

marriage proposal | boyfriend girlfriend relationship | infidelity | falling in love | bible | 

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Taglines:

A new adventure in filmmaking...

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Mr Bongo Films

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian English Greek

Release Date:

4 March 1961 (USA)

Also Known As:

L'Avventura

Filming Locations:

Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cino del Duca,Produzioni Cinematografiche Europee (P.C.E.),Societé Cinématographique Lyre

Technical Specs

Runtime:

143 min 102 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

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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Goofs

During the sequence in which Sandro and the newspaper reporter cross a street, the shadows of the camera and the crew are clearly and prolongedly visible on the actors and on the street surface.

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Quotes

Corrado: Giulia is like Oscar Wilde. Give her all the luxuries and she will manage without the little necessities.

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Connections

Referenced in Récit de voyage (2005)

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Soundtracks

Mai
(uncredited)
Performed by Mina
[sung along to by Monica Vitti]

User Reviews

A brutal study of alienation.

Having recently seen L'Avventura and Scenes from a Marriage back to back they seem as different as it is possible to be. Yet they do share a common ground, namely humanity's quest for love and understanding and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that lie in the way. But whereas Bergman's film has moments of true warmth and happiness, Antonioni's L'Avventura is as brutally cold as a Scandinavian winter.

Plot summary is not entirely important (and would spoil potential surprises), suffice to say that the movie is uniquely structured and may not proceed the way you expect it to. There is a mystery, and romance; but not in any traditional sense. The men and women of this film stumble through a loveless, desolate Italy, occasionally pausing for forced, wretched couplings. Alienation and the inability for humans to connect to one another have never been so painfully presented in film.

While discussing the guilt felt in betraying a mutual friend a woman asks "How can it be that it takes so little to change, to forget?" to which the man responds, "It takes even less." Before one of the films many desperate scenes of impersonal copulation the woman cries out in a fit of existential despair, "I feel as though I don't know you!" to which the man responds, "Aren't you happy? You get to have a new fling." The film is so brutally cynical about friendship, love and human interaction that it feels unreal. Strange alien landscapes, magnificently filmed among the rocky islands around Italy serve to underline the insurmountably barren distances between the characters. And as they grope and fumble for some kind of connection in the darkness that surrounds them, the viewer is pulled into their mire as well.

When they are not desperately searching for some kind of connection with each other, the characters struggle to come to terms with their own absurd existence. A man knocks over a bottle of ink, destroying an art student's in-progress drawing. A woman makes faces in a mirror at herself. Another woman pretends to see a shark in the ocean she is swimming in. None of these distractions are remotely successful.

By the time the film has reached its unbelievably cynical ending (dependant on one of the most effective uses of a musical score in film history), it becomes clear. These people have lost their way.

This overwhelming bleakness seems like it would create an unbearable viewing experience, but there is a truth to it all as well. Companionship is a basic human need, and it can often seem impossibly difficult to form any real connection. However, what is important is that it only seems that way, it is not impossible. Antonioni has shown us only one possible outcome. By watching a movie filled with people slouching towards oblivion, unable to form even the most basic human bond, the mind rebels. There must be another way…