L’Avventura (The Adventure) (1960)
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Cinematographer: Aldo Scavarda
Run-Time: 143 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Film Stock: 35mm Black & White Negative
L’Avventura is one of the earliest of all art-house films, and its unique and original structure is what caused so much pandemonium at its premier at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960. L’Avventura is a story about love, loss, and isolation, from others and even from oneself. The main protagonist Claudia, played by Monica Vitti, goes on a trip to an island with her best friend Anna and Anna’s boyfriend Sandro. Anna quickly wanders off and goes missing and the rest of the film is a low energy search and rescue for Anna by Claudia and Sandro who eventually fall in love and then into an emotionally tormented relationship. Claudia is torn between love for Anna and love for Sandro, as being with Sandro would be a betrayal to her longtime friend. L’Avventura is shot in black & white giving each highlighted face more emotional range and power, and every landscape feels remote even if it should be filled with the lives of others. Michelangelo Antonioni broke through the unknown with this film and showed audiences everywhere that not every story must have explosive action and situations, but instead can just be a free-flowing film with minimal and careful emotions.
Michelangelo Antonioni as a director has made many films regarding isolation and the rocky situations that often create breaks in relationships. This film is the prime example of Antonioni’s work as a film of isolation and misguided feelings of love and hate. L’Avventura relies on the female lead character to lead the camera into open and empty landscapes that act as blank canvases for one to project their emotions onto. Claudia, played by Monica Vitti, struggles with what her mind knows is best and what her heart truly feels and wants. This divide between what’s best and what one wants is a constant theme throughout the film. Relationships aren’t always easy, but this one is especially difficult as Claudia must choose between holding love in her heart for her friend Anna or building a new love in her heart for Sandro, Anna’s boyfriend. L’Avventura portrays an extremely iconic and influential relationship situation in the whole history of cinema. Antonioni as a filmmaker crafts a love story out of isolation and what would best be described as desperation.
[Image: Antonioni, Michelangelo, director. L’Avventura. Criterion Collection, 1960].
I tend to love films that can balance visual beauty with written or spoken beauty and L’Avventura is one of the best examples of that. L’Avventura flows almost perfectly as a visual piece of art. Scenes of crowded rooms and bourgeois yachts are contrasted with open and empty landscapes that resemble the mind of Claudia, caught between empty and full thoughts of love for Anna and for Sandro. The cinematography in this film is excellently developed. A black & white film stock is used that perfectly exemplifies stark contrasts between the good and the bad, as well as the empty and full. Landscapes are wide, open, and desolate. Portraits are stuffy and hectic, even after thoughtful decisions. Shots of Monica Vitti as Claudia in this film are something I heavily took inspiration for when making my first big short film. I tried to utilize Antonioni’s genius as a filmmaker to help set a precedent for shooting my film, to take what’s been done and craft my own style of that same idea. The visuals in this film were ultimately some of the most inspiring I had ever seen and truly learned from.
[Image: Antonioni, Michelangelo, director. L’Avventura. Criterion Collection, 1960].
Another aspect of this film that really truly resonates with and fascinates me is how this film was received after its premier. When this film originally premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1960 it was met with both extreme love and extreme hate. People in the crowd jeered as well as cheered. Many critics were heavily critical of this film’s role in cinema history. Ultimately this film was studied and viewed more and more until it was slightly more understood. People began to realize that it was a really unique and original film that offered ideas not previously shown on film. When I made and premiered my short film it was met with great applause, mainly thanks to my family and friends. But it also confused and shocked many people, as I am very sure that not everybody understood, loved, or even liked it. I understand that art is a process as well as a risk. Premiering or showing anyone art is just like cliff jumping. When you create the piece it’s like running up to the edge of the cliff and to finally present or show others your work is just like jumping off. Once you jump you cannot un-jump, there is this a release into the universe that is unstoppable. I love this film as much as I love knowing that it wasn’t immediately a success, and faced the difficulties of critique like every piece of art.
[Image: Antonioni, Michelangelo, director. L’Avventura. Criterion Collection, 1960].
I must have seen L’Avventura in its entirety close to a dozen times by now, and even more so in chunks, yet I still cannot perfectly describe how or why this film speaks to me so much. There is a feeling of isolation that I connect to, but I also feel the love that resonates between certain characters in this film. I know there’s more to this film than its visual appeal, but I cannot discredit the idea that even without a good story this film would be amazing just on visuals alone. A slow moving and free flowing film that makes you sit and just think about what you are experiencing is exactly what L’Avventura is and does. I love this film for many reasons, all of them difficult to put into words.
[Image: Antonioni, Michelangelo, director. L’Avventura. Criterion Collection, 1960].
Finally, my favorite quote of the entire film:
Claudia – “Sometimes I wonder what I could have done to prevent all this from happening.”
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