L'Avventura

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L'Avventura

DVD Cover
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Produced by Raymond Hakim
Robert Hakim
Cino Del Duca
Amato Pennasilico
Luciano Perugia
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni
Elio Bartolini
Tonino Guerra
Starring Monica Vitti
Gabriele Ferzetti
Music by Giovanni Fusco
Cinematography Aldo Scavarda
Editing by Eraldo Da Roma
Distributed by Janus Films (USA)
Release date(s) Flag of France 1960 (premiere at Cannes)
Flag of Italy 29 June 1960
Flag of United States 4 March 1961
Running time 145 min
Country Italy / France
Language Italian
Followed by La Notte
L'Eclisse
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

L'Avventura (The Adventure) is a 1960 Italian film written and directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Monica Vitti and Gabriele Ferzetti star. The film is notable for its slow pacing and careful composition, and for its unusual narrative structure. It was produced on location in Italy under difficult financial and physical conditions and made Monica Vitti an international star. The film is the first of a trilogy by Antonioni; it is followed by La Notte and L'Eclisse.

Contents

Actress Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960).
Actress Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960).
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

L'Avventura has an unusual narrative structure in which the apparently important central mystery is gradually forgotten and left unsolved. The story begins with a group of rich couples from Rome who take a boat trip and visit a virtually unpopulated volcanic island off the coast of Sicily. One of them, a young woman named Anna, wanders off and vanishes without a trace. The others search for her, but then give up, gradually adjust to her disappearance and drift back into their own lives. The rest of the story is somewhat centered on the relationship that develops between Anna's lover and her best friend. The final scene has nothing directly to do with Anna (except perhaps for the thought that her fate is unknowable) but much with how people cope with themselves and each other.

  • Gabriele Ferzetti as Sandro
  • Monica Vitti as Claudia
  • Lea Massari as Anna
  • Dominique Blanchar as Giulia
  • Renzo Ricci as Anna's Father
  • Dorothy de Poliolo as Gloria Perkins
  • Esmeralda Ruspoli as Patrizia
  • James Addams as Corrado
  • Lelio Luttazzi as Raimondo
  • Giovanni Petrucci as Young Prince
  • Jack O'Connell as Old man on the island
  • Angela Tommasi Di Lampedusa as The Princess

Released in 1960, the film was booed by some members of the audience during its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival; however, it won the Special Jury Prize. Although the film influenced the visual language of cinema, forever changing how subsequent movies looked, and has been named by some critics as one of the best ever made, it has been criticized by others for its uneventful plot, allegedly slow pacing and existentialist themes. Along with much of Antonioni's other work, L'Avventura is often cited as an early feminist film with strong and richly characterized female protagonists.[citation needed]

Cinema of Italy

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