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L'avventura

aka

The Adventure

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France, 1959, 145 minutes, 16mm

A group of friends sail their boat around the Mediterranean. Stopping on a deserted island, one of them goes missing. The others search for her for a while... and then... kind of forget to continue searching. Slowly paced, beautifully photographed, and technically accomplished, L'Avventura is a mystery without a solution.

"L'Avventura created a stir in 1960.... It was seen as the flip side of Fellini's La Dolce Vita. Both directors were Italian, both depicted their characters in a fruitless search for sensual pleasure, both films ended at dawn with emptiness and soul-sickness. But Fellini's characters, who were middle-class and had lusty appetites, at least were hopeful on their way to despair. For Antonioni's idle and decadent rich people, pleasure is anything that momentarily distracts them from the lethal ennui of their existence. - Roger Ebert