L’Avventura, released in 1960, is a film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. It explores themes of alienation, ennui, and existential searching. The film stars Monica Vitti, Gabriele Ferzetti, and Lea Massari and tells a haunting story of lost love and disconnection.
The story begins when Anna (Lea Massari) joins her boyfriend, Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), and her close friend, Claudia (Monica Vitti), on a yacht trip with several others along the Sicilian coast. During an island stop, Anna vanishes mysteriously. As her companions search for her across the bleak, rocky island, the initial panic gradually shifts to indifference, revealing the emotional detachment of those around her.
In the wake of Anna’s disappearance, Sandro and Claudia grow closer, eventually developing a romantic relationship marked by an unsettling ambivalence and guilt. Initially devoted to finding her friend, Claudia becomes drawn to Sandro despite her anxieties about loyalty. On the other hand, Sandro is depicted as a man who often evades genuine emotion, looking instead for transient fulfillment. Their romance becomes as unsettling as Anna’s disappearance, echoing the themes of emptiness and moral ambiguity pervading the film.
As the story progresses, the search for Anna dwindles, becoming less about her safety and more about the characters’ complex emotional responses to her absence. Antonioni’s slow-paced narrative style and focus on atmosphere over plot underscore the characters’ inner voids and reflect the disillusionment of the postwar Italian upper class.
The film’s cinematography, by Aldo Scavarda, is both stark and beautiful, using landscapes to mirror the characters’ psychological landscapes. Antonioni’s signature long takes and the film’s minimal dialogue highlight the sense of disconnection, making ‘L’Avventura’ a visually arresting film that challenges conventional storytelling and captures the alienation of modern life.
The Other Cinema 