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Anna (Lea Massari), the daughter of a wealthy businessman, leads a privileged life in Rome with her architect fiancé Sandro (Gabrielle Ferzetti). Along with her closest friend Claudia (Monica Vitti) and a group of fellow socialites, she and Sandro undertake a yacht excursion to Lisca Bianca, an island off the coast of Sicily. Anna literally vanishes from the scene when she leaves the yacht to explore the island on foot. The shock of her disappearance and the lack of any sign of her whereabouts shatter the complacency of her family and friends. Only Sandro and Claudia make real efforts to find the slightest trace of Anna. But the void revealed in the aftermath haunts them at every turn, stalking their growing mutual affection.
L'Avventura received a special prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival for creating a new film language . In presenting the teeming uncertainty of modern life without offering the slightest recourse of a motive or explanation, Michelangelo Antonioni provoked audiences to look at films in a new way. A regular fixture on myriad lists of the greatest films made, L'Avventura remains a landmark of film history.
L'Avventura received a special prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival for creating a new film language . In presenting the teeming uncertainty of modern life without offering the slightest recourse of a motive or explanation, Michelangelo Antonioni provoked audiences to look at films in a new way. A regular fixture on myriad lists of the greatest films made, L'Avventura remains a landmark of film history.
Review
L'Avventura has still held up remarkably well, perhaps because the creepiness of existence remains topical in these apathetic times --Filmcritic.com
Why don't we have movies like L'Avventura' anymore? Because we don't ask the same kinds of questions anymore. We have replaced the 'purpose of life' with the 'choice of lifestyle' --Chicago Sun-Times
In May 1960, Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura was the sensation of the Cannes film festival --The Guardian, UK
Why don't we have movies like L'Avventura' anymore? Because we don't ask the same kinds of questions anymore. We have replaced the 'purpose of life' with the 'choice of lifestyle' --Chicago Sun-Times
In May 1960, Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura was the sensation of the Cannes film festival --The Guardian, UK
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42 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
L'Avventura 1960
Superb Criterion Release.
L'Avventura was directed in 1960 by what many would regard now as one of the truly great directors of all time, Michelangelo Antonioni. `L'Avventura' is now regarded as being the first part in a quadrilogy of films followed by `La Notte' (1961), E'clisse (1962) and `Red Desert' (1964) all dealing with the themes of modern alienation and the human condition. The feature that sets `L'Avventura apart from the other three films though is that `L'Avventura still has a strong masculine, if immature and spiritually impotent, character. Later films would concentrate on the female character to a far greater extant.
L'Avventura is essentially a road movie with an objective that is not important to the film, so I won't say anything about that. What is important is that Antonioni is writing a whole new cinematic language in his use of camera angle and position within a scene, actors being filmed from behind and characters entering a scene from what would appear to be the wrong direction. The scenes and composition on the island are perhaps some of the best I've ever watched. Antonioni also uses architecture as a metaphor in many scenes and would be explored to a greater extent in his next two films `La Notte' and `E'clisse'. Saying that though, there are some Hitchcockian clichés in `L'Avventura' such as the train entering the tunnel as a metaphor for intercourse. It can sometimes be difficult for a younger audience to understand why `L'Avventura' is so important because so many of these ideas seem familiar to us now, but nothing was made like this before it. The audio commentary on this disc by film historian Gene Youngblood is an invaluable tool to a greater understanding of this films position and status in cinema history and is highly recommended. The transfer is superb and presented in 1.77:1 and enhanced for 16x 9 televisions.
L'Avventura starred Monica Vitti (E'clisse, 1962; Red Desert,1964), Gabriele Ferzetti (Once Upon A Time In The West, 1969) and Lea Massari (Mummur Of The Heart, 1971). Other similar films I would recommend are `La Dolce Vita' (Federico Felini, 1960); `Picnic At Hanging Rock' (Peter Weir, 1975) and `Paris, Texas' (Wim Wenders, 1984). `L'Avventura won the Special Jury Prize at Canne in 1960 yet still feels like a fresh and modern film and gets better every time I see it. It's in my top 5 greatest films ever made without a doubt.
Highly Recommended.
Superb Criterion Release.
L'Avventura was directed in 1960 by what many would regard now as one of the truly great directors of all time, Michelangelo Antonioni. `L'Avventura' is now regarded as being the first part in a quadrilogy of films followed by `La Notte' (1961), E'clisse (1962) and `Red Desert' (1964) all dealing with the themes of modern alienation and the human condition. The feature that sets `L'Avventura apart from the other three films though is that `L'Avventura still has a strong masculine, if immature and spiritually impotent, character. Later films would concentrate on the female character to a far greater extant.
L'Avventura is essentially a road movie with an objective that is not important to the film, so I won't say anything about that. What is important is that Antonioni is writing a whole new cinematic language in his use of camera angle and position within a scene, actors being filmed from behind and characters entering a scene from what would appear to be the wrong direction. The scenes and composition on the island are perhaps some of the best I've ever watched. Antonioni also uses architecture as a metaphor in many scenes and would be explored to a greater extent in his next two films `La Notte' and `E'clisse'. Saying that though, there are some Hitchcockian clichés in `L'Avventura' such as the train entering the tunnel as a metaphor for intercourse. It can sometimes be difficult for a younger audience to understand why `L'Avventura' is so important because so many of these ideas seem familiar to us now, but nothing was made like this before it. The audio commentary on this disc by film historian Gene Youngblood is an invaluable tool to a greater understanding of this films position and status in cinema history and is highly recommended. The transfer is superb and presented in 1.77:1 and enhanced for 16x 9 televisions.
L'Avventura starred Monica Vitti (E'clisse, 1962; Red Desert,1964), Gabriele Ferzetti (Once Upon A Time In The West, 1969) and Lea Massari (Mummur Of The Heart, 1971). Other similar films I would recommend are `La Dolce Vita' (Federico Felini, 1960); `Picnic At Hanging Rock' (Peter Weir, 1975) and `Paris, Texas' (Wim Wenders, 1984). `L'Avventura won the Special Jury Prize at Canne in 1960 yet still feels like a fresh and modern film and gets better every time I see it. It's in my top 5 greatest films ever made without a doubt.
Highly Recommended.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
L'Avventura is a mesmerizing and perplexing film about a short boating holiday that is interrupted when a young woman mysteriously vanishes on an empty island, forcing her lover and her best friend to search for her. A film about the dreadful carelessness that can arise where materialism and vanity are valued above human and spiritual contact. Or whatever...
Antonioni creates some absolutely beautiful shots and there is dramatic interest in the sexual tension between Claudia and Sandro as they search hopelessly for the missing Anna. At times I was reminded of Bergman, but what I like about this director is the way everything seems naturalistic and plausible, even to the extent that plot is rather slender, so if you're looking for a series of explosions and reversals, or a thrilling climax, look elsewhere.
The women and men are all rather chic, the scenes of intimacy more pleasing for being restrained, the feeling of disquiet likely to hold you captive even as you begin to doubt whether anything is going to happen. Still, clever and then original photography, impulsive characters whose behaviour perplexes as much as it fascinates, and the space and time to be thought provoking without being didactic.
Just think, if it had been a British production, it would have been a disaster, or a tasteles thriller, maybe like this one - Donkey Punch [DVD] [2008] - Gawd 'elp us!
Antonioni creates some absolutely beautiful shots and there is dramatic interest in the sexual tension between Claudia and Sandro as they search hopelessly for the missing Anna. At times I was reminded of Bergman, but what I like about this director is the way everything seems naturalistic and plausible, even to the extent that plot is rather slender, so if you're looking for a series of explosions and reversals, or a thrilling climax, look elsewhere.
The women and men are all rather chic, the scenes of intimacy more pleasing for being restrained, the feeling of disquiet likely to hold you captive even as you begin to doubt whether anything is going to happen. Still, clever and then original photography, impulsive characters whose behaviour perplexes as much as it fascinates, and the space and time to be thought provoking without being didactic.
Just think, if it had been a British production, it would have been a disaster, or a tasteles thriller, maybe like this one - Donkey Punch [DVD] [2008] - Gawd 'elp us!
25 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
1959's L'aventura was the film that moved Antonioni into the international realm of directors- it is far more diverting and perplexing than the later, somewhat over-rated Blow Up (1966). The story, as such, is not unlike Peter Weir's later Picnic at Hanging Rock- though there is just one disappearance here. The plot is fairly simple- people are on a cruise of the Mediterranean, Sandro and lover Anna are on it with her friend Claudia- on an island Anna vanishes, never to be found and Claudia replaces Anna as Sandro's lover.
This is a very strange film, with interesting/oblique compositions courtesy of photographer Aldo Scarvarda; L'aventura along with The Red Desert are Antonioni's finest works (later films like Blow Up & Zabriskie Point have moments and are visually stunning, but as a whole leave me cold)- and it ranks next to another oblique film of this period, Alain Resnais's L'Annee derniere a Marienbad (1961)- which is equally fantastic and a presient for modern films like Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive & Open Your Eyes. Antonioni and L'aventura may not to be your taste, but it still demands to be seen by those with an interest in cinema beyond mere entertainment...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good buy for the money
If you are in Europe (region 2) and you want to watch the superb Criterion release of l'Avventura there is no other choice left... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Alessandro D'Ovidio
Are you sure this is not pirated?
How can this release be all-region when there is a Criterion release in Zone 1? - the cover seems to be a copy too.
Published 13 months ago by Thomas Dillon
Challenging, beautiful, thought-provoking, but missed something - on...
A film I need to see again, and wouldn't be surprised to love more on repeated viewings. I appreciate Antonioni's magnificent framing and images, his bravery with unconventional... Read more
Published 15 months ago by K. Gordon
AN ABJURE IDIOSYNCRATIC ITALIAN DELIGHT
The Antonioni classic that surrounds a casual rich cruise adventure on an off shore Italian island is an in-depth observation of human selfishness ,corruption and total contempt... Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2009 by usman
A masterpiece of cinema
One of the best movies ever made. Each shot is stunning, as is Ms. Vitti! A masterpiece by Michelangelo Antonioni.
Published on 16 Oct 2009 by RONAN R OSULLIVAN
L'Avventura
The first in a trilogy of films about couples in a crisis, L'Avventura takes place in an Italy enjoying an economic boom. Read more
Published on 12 May 2009 by technoguy
A landmark, in its day
This film gets a very high rating in the Halliwell Film Guide and I can see that, in its time 1960, it will have been ground-breaking in its naturalistic filming technique and its... Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2008 by Bluebell
6 stars if it were possible XXXXXX...there
Anything that can be said has been said so I wont go on to much...In my view for me this is without doubt one of the best films I have seen in years, Monica Vitti is so stunning... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2008 by David M. Grant
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