Michaelangelo & Me
Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 07:42PM 
Antonioni, that is. L'Avventura begins with this image of Anna departing through an archway.
It ends with this image of Claudia and Sandro in a moment of reconciliation in front of Mt. Etna.
Anyone who enjoys black & white images should watch this film, one of the greatest ever made.
Apparently Antonioni at some point called this 1960 film a mystery in reverse: it more or less starts with a solution, and broadens into a mystery. But if one pays attention, it's pretty obvious that the question of Anna's disappearance is of little interest after several days. Early on she has gotten herself out of a relationship that gave her no satisfaction, her disappearance the solution to her dilemma. The continuing mystery is about her friend Claudia, who becomes involved with her fiance Sandro, a man who has conveniently lowered his sights to become a consultant. He wishes he could go back to doing architectural design work, but he's too comfortable being an estimator to bother.
Monica Vitti's portrayal of Claudia's quest reveals a character of incredible strength, intelligence, compassion, and subtlety.
Every image in the film is constructed with the care of a master photographer. That the camera moves around the locations is an added bonus that still photographs aren't afforded.
The currently available DVD from Janus Films is a pretty decent transfer. There was one scratch in the print that I noticed, but generally it's quite clean.
Reader Comments (2)
I've also had Antonioni on the brain lately. Just watched The Passenger with Jack Nicholson's commentary track, and figured out the mystery of the long single shot the goes from inside the hotel room through the window bars out into the courtyard and back. Won't spoil it here. The Nicholson narration is hilarious.
The Passenger is definitely in my top five of all time. It's been a few years since I last watched it, and have never listened to Nicholson's commentary. That's a treat I'm looking forward to. I think I need to work through La notte, L'eclisse, and Il deserto rosso first.
The bottom two images from this post are from a small town in Sicilia that resembles very much the feel of the Spanish town at the end of The Passenger. They both have an echo of De Chiricho.
Prior to departure from this small deserted town, Claudia and Sandro look down the hill at some other buildings. Sandro - the architect - says, "There is another town." Claudia looks at it again and says, "It's not another town. It's a cemetery."