L'Avventura (1960) - English subtitled
An iconic piece of challenging 1960s cinema, L’Avventura concerns the enigmatic disappearance of a young woman during a yachting trip off the coast of Sicily.
Not only did Michelangelo Antonioni’s ground-breaking film L’AVVENTURA win the Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, establishing its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent, it also gave the world the epochal breakout performance of actress Monica Vitti.
Like Alfred Hitchcock in the same year’s PSYCHO, Michelangelo Antonioni upturned expectation by getting rid of his film’s ostensible protagonist early on. When Anna, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, vanishes, the search is taken up by her disaffected lover and her closest friend Claudia. The latter is played by Monica Vitti, in her breakout role.
Michelangelo Antonioni invented a new film grammar with L’AVVENTURA, which caught many audiences who were expecting a classic mystery off guard. Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection. This controversial drama remains a gorgeously shot classic tale of modern ennui and spiritual isolation.