| | |
Features: DVD
A girl mysteriously disappears on a yachting trip; while her lover and her best friend search for her across Italy, then begin a vacuous affair. Antonioni's penetrating study of Italy's idle rich offers stinging observations on spiritual isolation and the many meanings of love.
"Why don't we have movies like L'avventura anymore?" Rober Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
"Masterpiece is the only word to describe this motion picture." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Editor's Note
L'AVVENTURA, one of Michelangelo Antonioni's most gripping works, features expert photography and an electric cast that, together, seem to try to fool the audience. As a result, viewers are engrossed as they watch the majestic film unroll, waiting for Antonioni to reveal a piece of plot or offer up any cinematic clue to help them solve the film's mystery. In a style that would later be known as Hitchcockian, that moment never comes. One summery Saturday afternoon a group of friends living in Rome departs on a yachting trip out to a local island. Two of the group, Anna (Lea Massari) and Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), young lovers considering marriage, have a dispute; that afternoon, Sandro announces that Anna is missing. A thorough search of the island is made on Anna's behalf, but she is never found, and Sandro, who remains relatively unconcerned, is never questioned. In fact, before the yachting group even returns to the mainland, Sandro tries to pick up Anna's best friend, Claudia (Monica Vitti). Still, he is not even considered suspicious, but viewers can smell a rat. Claudia and Sandro galavant through the Italian countryside, supposedly investigating Claudia's disappearance, but their true motives are never clear, even in the last--entirely enigmatic--scene of the movie.
Plot Summary
Michelangelo Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA, an astoundingly well-crafted film with a suspenseful plot about a disappearing girl and a love affair, won the Special Jury Award at Cannes in 1960 and is considered a true classic. It is one of a trilogy by the director--including LA NOTTE and L'ECLISSE--that explore failed love relationships against the backdrop of increasing industrialization.
| Features | Restoration Demonstration | | New And Improved English Subtitle Translation | | Optimal Image Quality: RSDL Dual-Layer Edition | | Writings By Antonioni, Read By Jack Nicholson--Plus Nicholson's Personal Recollections Of The Director | | Reprint Of Antonioni's Statements About L'avventura, Circulated After The film's Premierre At The 1960 Cannes Film Festival | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | New Digital Transfer With Restored Image And Sound | | Audio Commentary By Gene Youngblood | | 58-Minute Docuimentary By Gianfranco Mingozzi |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: Columbia Tri-Star |
| Release Date: 6/5/2001 |
| Running Time: 143 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1960 | | Catalog ID: 040 | | UPC: 00037429156025 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Italian | | Available Audio Tracks: Italian | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: B&W |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Cannes Film Festival (1960) |  | Michelangelo Antonioni, Winner, Jury Prize |
|
| | Professional Reviews | Los Angeles Times
"...L'AVVENTURA is the most modern of masterpieces..." 09/03/1998 p.C18Chicago Sun-Times
"...L'AVVENTURA becomes a place in our imagination -- a melancholy moral desert..." 01/19/1997 p.5 Entertainment Weekly
"...The director's exquisite widescreen compositions have never felt so subtly pregnant with meaning..." 0608/2001 p.54 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he filmmaking -- the long tracking shots, the minimalist acting style, the creative use of empty spaces -- is hypnotic, extraordinary and extremely influential." 07/01/2008 p.171 |
| |
|
|
|
