L’Avventura (1960)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Starring Monica Vitti, Gabriele Ferzetti, Lea Massari, James Addams, Dorothy de Poliolo, Dominique Bianchar, Lelio Luttazzi, Renzo Ricci, Giovanni Petrucci, Renato Pinciroli.

The one that put Antonioni on the international map, and the first film in his much-lauded post-realist “Incommunicability Trilogy” (followed by La Notte and L’Eclisse). While exploring a small, uninhabited island during a yachting cruise in the Mediterranean, Massari disappears, leaving boyfriend Ferzetti and close friend Vitti to wonder what happened to her and embark on a futile search. The setup reeks of highbrow genre filmmaking—perhaps a romantic thriller centered on a combustible love triangle, maybe a mystery begging to be solved, or a tense adventure that adds layer after layer until it collapses—but the journey turns out to be more meditative than plot point-driven, a humanist search without an answer, without catharsis. These are shallow people gripped by emotional and spiritual distress, and their inability to resolve their feelings of confusion and alienation is as edge-of-the-seat as any conventional entertainment with the same basic ingredients. Received a mixed reception upon release for its open, elliptical way of telling a story, but because of its widespread influence in the sixty-plus years since, the elusive style and image/montage construction no longer feels like an “alien” challenge. Jazzy score by Giovanni Fusco. Title translation (if it wasn’t obvious): “the adventure”.

89/100