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La Ventura is widely regarded as one of the greatest films to date. Michelangelo Antonioni didnt win the Palme Dor, but it did get a Special Jury Prize during the Cannes film festival of 1960. No surprise he didnt win the Palme Dor, but why give him an award in the first place? The reason for winning the title seemed unclear at first because the film had serious issues with breaking the rules of standardized filmmaking. For example having his actors enter the scene from opposite directions from where the came the shot before. However Avventura is a whole other world of its own.
The title translates to English as The Adventure and indeed thats what it is. The movie is relaxing to watch thanks to the scenery, but its slow and a bit boring. The film is over two hours long (2: 20 or so) and it takes a while to get anywhere. This is disturbing because the plot didnt seem to have as much importance as the camera angles, framing shots or dialogue. These aesthetics had more importance than in most other movies. It also had an unusual way of telling the story - done mainly by showing images to transfer the main message.
Technically, its a photographic journey! Well, kind of. Mainly because the whole island shoot is done through wide angle lens that squeezes the nice black-and-white landscaping in the background. Also effective is how people seem to disappear in it.
Another beautiful shot was on the roof of the church where the two main characters are ringing the church bells like kids playing, and then other church bells respond. That was a very nice sequence and a very nice symbol. The initial problem that the characters have to deal with however was Anna and her disappearing. In a typical film, finding Anna would have been what the story would follow.
But as L'Avventura goes on, the script allows us or makes us forget about Anna. This process is done slowly, and we never stop thinking about Anna. We are struck back to Anna especially in the end when Claudia mentions her. The movie picked up pace after Anna disappeared especially with the kiss of Sandro and Claudia. There are two main characters: a man and a woman.
Sandro wants sex from his girlfriends and refuses to commit himself to one, while Claudia needs love and more love. Thanks to Claudia's performance, its more like portraying a woman's instability & sensitivity to mood swings. Women are constantly changing and men are blind, and thats how the world goes around. On the contrary, too much of her character is just built around being mysterious, and this gets annoying as well. Thankfully, Antonioni didnt bore us with her physically because he did a good job of making her beautiful through the camera.
The actors are good enough because they express a lot of feelings in some scenes and others where there are no feelings. Because the acting is kept simple, this simplicity works well. For example, one character will be deep in thought in the distance as if they are trying to contact someone else that pops up in the foreground, but they never end up saying anything. Even the sex scenes are a weak way of escaping the boredom of the environment. Antonioni made sure nothing happens and no one speaks without a reason. Even the extras in the party scene look around and their body language help show how odd things are.
Audio is interesting. The usage of quiet, background sounds creates a natural and slightly scary effect- especially in the island scenes. The sound of the waves fades in and out many times making the scene feel dreamy. The sound of water was also heard in the background of the apartment scene, before they even went to the marina.
There is also an unusual choice of music that comes at random times that bothers the ear. As for dialogue, the movie is originally in Italian. Now Italian is a very fast language compared to English. So you need motor-powered eyes to read the subtitles fast enough (which is annoying because there is a lot of dialogue to be read) before it disappears!
This is bad because its tough to fully notice the camera work of the film. There is no adventure except probably the ever-changing reflection of human relationships. Alienation and dullness are the main human relationships. The fracturing of these relationships is the main theme of the film.
Of course, there are more themes. The movie is about forgetting; about the changing of everything abstract and about how little love can be worth. More themes include the lack of communication and superficial ways of living life. During the island scene, it seemed like all the other characters were ignoring or not paying attention to Claudia, except Anna. All characters on the island see life as an easy adventure (hint the title? ) except Claudia.
The characters are superficial and misleading. Claudia refuses to see life and love as nothing more than an adventure that is ongoing. Unfortunately, her innocence will hurt her by the end. Basically a few problems are so stretched out that it aggravates the audience. Antonioni should have hired a better editor, because he insists on dragging out every emotion and tone in the main characters very slowly. At the end there is no resolution to any of the feelings.
Therefore 'L'Avventura' is without doubt an important movie milestone, and yes, it has some beautiful images in it you won't soon forget but entertaining?
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