L’Avventura – Film Review
I thought I would discuss “L’Avventura”, the film directed by Michaelangelo Antonioni and released in 1960, which I watched last night. I really enjoyed the style and feel of “Blow Up”, his famous film starring David Hemmings from the mid-60s. “L’Avventura” is also in black and white and has truly masterful and mesmerizing cinematography. It’s the story of the mysterious disappearance of a young woman on a tiny rocky island off the coast of Sicily. In that sense it sort of reminded me of Peter Wier’s “Picnic At Hanging Rock”. The story itself is not as important as the feelings engendered by eerie, stylized and spare cinematography. Probably the overarching theme is the impermanence of love. I hate when people spoil plot elements so I won’t… the story drags at bit at 2 hours and 20 minutes. The really unusual photography got me to hang in there.
I grade this movie B+ for great visuals and solid performances.
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I write about wine events, wine media, wine happenings, and ocassionally post film reviews. I live in eastern MA and usually work in IT, most recently as a Systems Analyst. Email me at luvallgems@gmail.com.
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Paula’s Choice
very heavy on the cheese, i agree
But the cheese was photographed so beautifully by DP Aldo Scavarda.
Loved this movie…absolutely loved it
Hello Alfonso, thanks for checking out my blog. I enjoyed this movie too. La Notte was another quixotic movie directed by Antonioni also starring Monica Vitti. I have to admit to enjoying Blow Up the most of all.
My personal fave–think it succeeds best in making the location, camera work, & purely visual context further the narrative effectively– is ‘L’Eclisse’. ‘Il Grido’ has some condradiction in levels of stylisation, but I’d have to place it above both ‘Notte’ & ‘Avventura’ for effectivenes…’Notte’ is just so s l o w, it seems to succumb to the empty ennui it portrays, admittedly very effectively!
Hi David – Thanks for the comment and recommendations. I think I will add L’Eclisse and Il Grido to my Netflix queue now. And maybe a few other Antonioni films too, heck. I have seen La Notte and agree with your feelings about how the ennui is so very effectively shown.
Hi, Sharon– as long as I’m recommending & you’re not the kind of flim buff-ette keeping magnificent Michelangelo at screen’s length as too bleakly existential, I’ll point you towards one of Signore A’s neglected middle period works–
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084116/
full disclosure: I worked with Tomás Milian once, but did a double take before recognising him here.
Ten, fifteen years later, same thing: he’s in Soderberg’s ‘Traffic’, & it took me the longest while to recognise him: a woefully neglected character actor.
Thanks for the pointer to ‘Identification’, David. It’s not in Netflix! Nor in my library network. That’s a drag. I like moody, bleak dramas as long as they have style. I’m sure I’ve seen Tomas Milian as well as it looks like he was in ‘Oz’, the gruesome series on HBO that I used to watch.