L'Avventura : essai d'analyse (fin)

Antonioni introduit avec L'Avventura un nouveau personnage féminin, émancipé, conscient et en accord avec sa féminité. » « À travers la douleur et la désillusion - toutes deux causées par la double infidélité de Sandro -, Claudia est devenue une femme. Son intégration dans la routine sentimentale aboutit à une sorte de conscience de ce qui est provisoire. À la fin, Claudia est Anna avec la prise de conscience en plus. » Le désarroi et les pleurs de Sandro suscitent son émotion : face « au naufrage, la pitié lui semble être l'ultime planche de salut." Claudia apparaît incontestablement comme le personnage le plus complexe du drame.Claudia, c'est Monica Vitti, nouvelle étoile dans l'univers du cinéma.

À partir de L'Avventura, elle deviendra la compagne intime et l'égérie artistique du réalisateur. Avec Monica Vitti, l'œuvre d'Antonioni atteint un autre niveau. « Dans ce film, comme dans les trois films suivants, formant avec lui une tétralogie, c'est la femme qui tient la place centrale, comme porteuse des impératifs moraux des quatre films."Et ainsi s'éveille le vieux doute:et si ce que Diderot a dit était vrai,que l'on peut communiquer une émotion sans la ressentir. Ou bien doit-on la sentir au plus profond pour pouvoir l'exprimer ? Le cinéma [...] offre ces deux possibilités. »

Anecdotes

-Le film fut hué lors de sa première projection au festival de Cannes, l'absence d'éclaircissements sur la disparition d'Anna étant mal jugée à l'époque.

Shallow Characters In A Very Deep Film

Author: Poison-River from Stirling, Scotland
22 March 2005

There's something strange going on in this film.

The first time I watched it, it seemed to wash over me without affecting me in anyway. Later on(and I've read this in other people's comments here as well) I found images and dialogue from the movie creeping into my subconscious; entire dreams would take place upon the island where Anna goes missing(often in monochrome), or I'd start to compare real life events to those that occur during the film. Did Antonioni plant subliminal messages within the movie? Probably not. It's more likely the masterful pace he employs here, coupled with the busy, deep cinematography is the cause of this. Notice how the backgrounds NEVER go out of focus, no matter how much is going on within the frame. Check out the scene about an hour and ten minutes in, where Sandro and the old man are talking in the middle of an extremely busy street; nothing blurs or goes out of focus, even when a tram comes in and out of the shot, nothing loses it's perspective, and as the scene ends and they walk deep into the shot we can see way past them and far, far into the distance.

This seems to be why the film has such a deep affect on the subconscious. The characters are deliberately shallow and are placed at the very foreground of every shot, yet the backgrounds are rich tableaux bustling with life. In the scenes on the island where Anna disappears, we see the main characters always in shot, yet in the background there is a feeling that something strange within nature itself is going on. The darkening of the clouds, the sudden mist upon the water, the rocks falling to the sea, even the sudden appearance of the old hermit character, all give a certain unease.

There's also the haunting feeling of the film, as Anna's friends begin, almost immediately to forget about her. Soon, they don't seem to care a jot about her, and neither, in a sense, do we. It's this feeling of loose ends and guilt on our part(for joining her so called 'friends' in forgetting about her so quickly) that leaves the deepest impression. The characters in this film are so morally shallow(the ending bears this out) yet they are the reason this film leaves such a strong impression on those who watch it, and who become captivated by it.

I cant recommend this film to everyone because I know that the Hollywood Blockbuster has reduced most modern cinema-goers attention spans to almost zero. But if you fancy a challenge, or merely wish to luxuriate in classic cinema.....begin here.

49 out of 66 people found the following review useful:
 

Innovative study on alienation

Author: Alexandar (acanovakovic@gmail.com) from Nis, Serbia
1 March 2006

L'Avventura (1960)**** 

Young woman (Lea Massari) suddenly disappears during a boating trip on an inhabited island. Shortly afterward, her boyfriend (Gabriele Ferzetti) and her best friend (Monica Vitti) became attracted to each other.

However, don't expect the mystery. This is a study of emotional isolation, moral decay, lack of the communication and emptiness of rich people in contemporary (then) society. You can easily be bored by the slow pace and the lack of dramatics of this movie unless you capture its true purpose. This is "state of mind" or experience film rather than conventional plot film. Antonioni practically discovered the new movie language in L'Avventura. By using formal instruments he is expressing emotions of the characters (loneliness, boredom, emptiness and emotional detachment) and the viewer is forced rather to feel this same emotions himself than to be involved in the story and its events. These formal instruments are: slow rhythm, real-time events, long takes, visual metaphors like inhabited island(s), fog, extreme long shots (small characters in panorama) and putting protagonists on inhabited streets or large buildings and landscapes.Great cinematography. Forms trilogy with La Notte (1961) and L'Eclisse (1962)4

*7 out of 73 people found the following review useful:

10/10

Author: zetes from Saint Paul, MN
12 February 2001

I first saw this film about three years ago. It had come up in my reading, and it sounded interesting. So I rented it. I found it good, if a little boring. However, later I discovered that it was one of those films that may not be entirely entertaining when it is watched initially, but that comes back full force in the memory at a later time. This is true both for this film, and the only other Antonioni film I have seen, Blowup. Still, tonight was the first time in three years that I have actually sat down to watch L'Avventura (and I actually plan to re-rent Blowup in the next couple of days and any other Antonioni films I might be able to find).

As I have said, L'Avventura has been built up by my mind ever since I saw it. Was it as good as I made myself think for the past three years? Yes. I have confirmed my suspicion: L'Aventurra is one of the best films ever made.

In subject, this film is a lot like La Dolce Vita. Its main theme is the decadent lifestyle of the wealthy. The decadent wealthy in L'Avventura are a lot worse off, though, than those in La Dolce Vita. At least those who were living Fellini's version of the sweet life were having fun. Sure, it was soulless fun, but, while watching the film, this thought, no matter how much I wanted to suppress it, was pounding in my mind: "Jeeze, I wish I could party with these people." Their lifestyle seems just plain fun. They may have to pay for their hedonism in some way, but at least they're having fun in the meantime! L'Avventura's sweet life is the definition of "l'ennui." Life to them is an unfortunate event. 

The script to this film, as well as anything else about it, is absolutely ingenious. To simplify things, let us say that the first plot point in the film is Anna's disappearance. This is the initial problem that the characters have to deal with. In a film made under the classical guidelines, this would have been the goal that would have to be solved by the end of the film. But as L'Avventura advances, the script allows us, or maybe even makes us, forget about Anna. This process is very gradual (and she never completely disappears from our minds, especially since Claudia mentions her so explicitly near the end), but it begins very quickly after she disappears, with the infamous kiss between Sandro and Claudia. There are miles of interpretation and discussion left to go, but it is unneccessary to continue here. This is just a beginning.

The title to this film is, of course, ironic. There is no literal adventure. One could make the argument that the adventure is one of the mind, but I do not believe this. The adventure, I believe, is an adventure in reinventing the cinema.

21 out of 25 people found the following review useful:
* 

A brutal study of alienation.

Author: UnholyBlackMetal from Lawrence, KS
1 August 2007

Having recently seen L'Avventura and Scenes from a Marriage back to back they seem as different as it is possible to be. Yet they do share a common ground, namely humanity's quest for love and understanding and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that lie in the way. But whereas Bergman's film has moments of true warmth and happiness, Antonioni's L'Avventura is as brutally cold as a Scandinavian winter.

Plot summary is not entirely important (and would spoil potential surprises), suffice to say that the movie is uniquely structured and may not proceed the way you expect it to. There is a mystery, and romance; but not in any traditional sense. The men and women of this film stumble through a loveless, desolate Italy, occasionally pausing for forced, wretched couplings. Alienation and the inability for humans to connect to one another have never been so painfully presented in film.

While discussing the guilt felt in betraying a mutual friend a woman asks "How can it be that it takes so little to change, to forget?" to which the man responds, "It takes even less." Before one of the films many desperate scenes of impersonal copulation the woman cries out in a fit of existential despair, "I feel as though I don't know you!" to which the man responds, "Aren't you happy? You get to have a new fling." The film is so brutally cynical about friendship, love and human interaction that it feels unreal. Strange alien landscapes, magnificently filmed among the rocky islands around Italy serve to underline the insurmountably barren distances between the characters. And as they grope and fumble for some kind of connection in the darkness that surrounds them, the viewer is pulled into their mire as well.

When they are not desperately searching for some kind of connection with each other, the characters struggle to come to terms with their own absurd existence. A man knocks over a bottle of ink, destroying an art student's in-progress drawing. A woman makes faces in a mirror at herself. Another woman pretends to see a shark in the ocean she is swimming in. None of these distractions are remotely successful.

By the time the film has reached its unbelievably cynical ending (dependant on one of the most effective uses of a musical score in film history), it becomes clear. These people have lost their way.

This overwhelming bleakness seems like it would create an unbearable viewing experience, but there is a truth to it all as well. Companionship is a basic human need, and it can often seem impossibly difficult to form any real connection. However, what is important is that it only seems that way, it is not impossible. Antonioni has shown us only one possible outcome. By watching a movie filled with people slouching towards oblivion, unable to form even the most basic human bond, the mind rebels. There must be another way…

Just looking over the other comments on this page gives an indication of how rich yet elusive this masterpiece of Antonioni is. The seemingly limitless number of interpretations and reactions the film elicits are testimony to its success in conveying its theme. For Antonioni, life is an "adventure" a quest for identity and meaning.

It is no accident that the initial group of characters seem to forget all about their friend who suddenly vanishes on a barren volcanic island. The unexpected absence seems to open a void of speculation, which the balance of the film proceeds to explore.

It should always be remembered that the VISUAL aspect in Antonioni is as important as the verbal; and, often, it is more important. The characters continuously gaze at a landscape, run their hands along a rock or some other surface as if trying to see or feel what is under the veneer. There is something almost Eastern in Antonioni's aesthetic. His films seem to view the material world as an enormous surface illusion. People, the director has said, have lost touch with their true origin, as part of the natural world. Large cities and technology have cut us off, and isolated us from nature. The modern individual is constantly in search of a primal connection. This explains the preoccupation with sex in some characters, something Antonioni calls "serial monogamy". Since sexuality, as Huxley has said, is the only remaining link to the mystery of life, humans turn more and more to it as their world achieves greater sophistication and technological advancement.

Were Antonioni not an artist, such speculations could be either dull or off-putting. But through a poetic use of image and spare dialogue, he creates a world of strangely compelling and sympathetic characters. The viewer is compelled along with them on their "avventura".In addition, this film makes beautiful case for black and white cinematography.

9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
* 

A masterpiece

Author: fandango1 from Rome, Italy
26 September 2004

A real masterpiece! Antonioni at his best! He is able to capture in a unique visual style the tragedy that surrounds people and their inability to communicate. And yet they are always longing for comfort, love and forgiveness. 

It starts as a mystery but it later goes in search of deep human feelings. The scenes are so rich you'd be surprised to be completely mesmerized and lost in his world. 

Slow pacing, of course. But what can you expect when you are watching a movie that look like a moving painting of two hours. You simply have adjust yourself to the interior beat of this brilliant movie which opened a decade of successes in Italian cinema history.

16 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
* 

"I Love You... I Hate You... I Feel Nothing"

Author: Righty-Sock (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico
25 January 2009

The circular story, the emphasis on isolation and futility, and the symbolic use of Sicilian landscape returned with greater strength in "L'Avventura," the first film in a free trilogy ("La Notte" and "L'Eclisse" followed) about restless, disillusioned unhappy women and sensitive, unreliable, soft men...

Some way into the movie and without a careful explanation, a central affluent character disappears without a trace from a yachting trip... Few of the group of socialites—wealthy, elegant, bored—come in sight bothered by what has occurred, and while the girl's neglectful sweetheart and her best friend (Monica Vitti) pair off in a search around a remote, uninhabited island, they embark on a spontaneous exciting intimacy… 

The story is simple, but the greatness of the film, however, is in two parts... First, it analyzes the psychology of the two main characters in keen and penetrating yet doubtful tones... Second, unconcerned with the reasons for the girl's unexpected disappearance, Antonioni instead concentrates on the moral discomfort that drives forward their closest knowledge to betray her memory28 out of 49 people found the following review useful:
*

One of the truly great works of cinema

Author: Opio from Oklahoma City, OK
12 June 1999

"L'avventura"--"The Adventure", an adventure into the void of the modern world.

Antonioni's first international success is a subtle masterpiece focusing on the disappearance of an unhappy woman on an island and her friends' subsequent search. This is one of my favorite films of all-time. The composition and camerawork is aesthetically perfect; every frame is beautiful. The film's subtle psychological exploration is masterful, dealing with isolation and the protagonist's passive lifestyle forced to change under new circumstances. The sparse score perfectly fits the mysterious tone of the picture. Monica Vitti is nothing short of magnificent in the lead role. Constricting and excess plot details have been cut away, and the pace is slowed to allow the viewer to take in the wonderful images and actually think about the meanings and ideas contained within them. For viewers seeking serious, artful, intelligent, subtle, visually-stunning 'pure' cinema, this is the epitome.

34 out of 61 people found the following review useful:
* 

Love can be worth so little

Author: Mort-31 from Vienna, Austria
28 January 2003

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.

Fiche technique
Titre : La Nuit
Titre d’origine : La notte
Réalisation : Michelangelo Antonioni
Scénario : Michelangelo Antonioni,
Tonino Guerra, Ennio Flaiano
Musique : Giorgio Gaslini
Assistants-réalisation : Franco Indovina,
Berto Pelosso
Photographie : Gianni Di Venanzo
Cadrage : Pasqualino De Santis
Ingénieur du son : Claudio Maielli
Montage : Eraldo Da Roma
Direction artistique : Piero Zuffi
Décors : Piero Zuffi
Maquillages : Franco Freda,
Micheline Chaperon
Script-Girl : Liana Ferri
Photographe de plateau : Sergio Strizzi
Pays d’origine :  Italie,  France
Tournage :
Langue : italien
Début des prises de vue : 8 juin 1960
Extérieurs : Milan (Italie)
Producteur : Emanuele Cassuto
Directeur de production : Paolo Frasca
Sociétés de production : Nepi Film (Rome),
Sofitedip (Paris), Silver Film (Paris)
Sociétés de distribution : Artédis (France),
Panocéanic Films:Les Acacias (France)
Format : noir et blanc — 35 mm — 1.66:1
— son monophonique
Genre : drame
Durée : 125 minutes
Dates de sortie :  24 janvier 1961, 
24 février 1961
(fr) Mentions CNC : tous publics, Art et Essai
 (visa d'exploitation no 23675
délivré le 23 février 1961)