Avventura, L' (1960)

Director:

Michelangelo Antonioni

Writers:

Michelangelo Antonioni (screenplay)
Michelangelo Antonioni (story)

Release Date:

4 March 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Mediterranean Sea | Sicily | Very Little Dialogue | Yacht | Italy

Awards:

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

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
Jack O'Connell	...	Old man on the island
Angela Tommasi Di Lampedusa	...	The Princess
Franco Cimino
Prof. Cucco	...	Ettore
Giovanni Danesi

Also Known As:

Isola, L' (Italy) (working title)
The Adventure (International: English title) (literal title)

Runtime:

141 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG | Italy:VM14 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (re-rating) (1995) | UK:X (original rating) | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Aeolian Islands, Messina, Sicily, Italy

Company:

Cino del Duca

Trivia:

First part of the unofficial "Incommunicability Trilogy" with Notte, La (1961) and Eclisse, L' (1962). Michelangelo Antonioni didn't make the three movies as a trilogy, but cinema historians have called it so since then.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: 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.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Michelangelo Antonioni storia di un autore (1966) (TV)

Love can be worth so little

What I particularly liked about this film, was, in the first part, the surreal black-and-white landscape, and how people (literally and metaphorically) seem to disappear in that landscape. The movie is beautiful to watch, slow but never boring, an original story featuring complex characters. The actors are fascinating, they do not do a lot but they express a great variety of feelings, including the inability to feel in certain situations.

Of course, there are `themes' too. Basically, the movie is about forgetting; about the transitoriness of everything abstract, particularly about how little love can be worth; and I am sure a lot of other meanings can be gathered from this beautiful movie.