L'avventura

( 1 )

Overview

This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent. The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro Gabriele Ferzetti, an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna Lea Massari, and her friend Claudia Monica Vitti, who doesn't fit in with the wealthy jet-setters' dissolute ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a ...
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Overview

This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent. The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro Gabriele Ferzetti, an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna Lea Massari, and her friend Claudia Monica Vitti, who doesn't fit in with the wealthy jet-setters' dissolute ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a volcanic island, Claudia initially blames Sandro's emotionally barren behavior toward her. As they search the island, however, Claudia and Sandro grow closer and -- when it is apparent that Anna is gone forever -- become lovers. Unfortunately, Sandro cannot find anything decent inside himself and betrays Claudia with a local prostitute. Caught in the act, Sandro has a heartrending breakdown on a desolate beach, but Claudia silently forgives him. L'avventura caught many audiences who were expecting a mystery by surprise; as in La notte 1961, The Eclipse 1962, and Red Desert 1964, Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection.
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola
Catcalls greeted its Cannes Film Festival premiere, but filmmakers and critics recognized the artistic importance of Michelangelo Antonioni's experiments with psychologizing film narrative, and L'avventura (1960) was awarded a special Jury Prize. Abandoning the kind of cause-and-effect plot line that might be expected in a film about the search for a missing woman, Antonioni instead sought to examine the barren inner lives of the postwar rich; the "adventure" is in the encounters between characters as they attempt and fail to make emotional connections. Limiting the audience's knowledge of Anna's disappearance to what Sandro and Claudia learn, and depicting screen actions in real time, Antonioni turns viewing the film into a direct experience of the initial excitement over the search and the waning of involvement as the effort becomes fruitless. Antonioni's carefully controlled deep focus widescreen compositions further communicate the characters' existential ennui and psychic disconnection from each other in evocatively barren environments. Bolstered by the Cannes experience, L'avventura became Antonioni's first worldwide success; released within a year of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1959), L'avventura helped announce a vital new era in international art cinema.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 6/16/2000
  • UPC: 037429072639
  • Original Release: 1960
  • Source: Homevision
  • Format: VHS

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Gabriele Ferzetti Sandro
Monica Vitti Claudia
Lea Massari Anna
Dominique Blanchar Giulia
Renzo Ricci Anna's Father
Dorothy de Poliolo Gloria Perkins
James Addams Corrado
Lelio Luttazzi Raimondo
Giovanni Petrucci Young Prince
Renato Pinciroli
Esmeralda Ruspoli Patrizia
Technical Credits
Michelangelo Antonioni Director, Screenwriter
Gianni Arduini Asst. Director
Elio Bartolini Screenwriter
Adrianna Berselli Costumes/Costume Designer
Giovanni Fusco Score Composer
Tonino Guerra Screenwriter
Franco Indovina Asst. Director
Luciano Perugia Producer
Piero Poletto Production Designer, Set Decoration/Design
Eraldo Da Roma Editor
Aldo Scavarda Cinematographer
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Customer Reviews

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