L’Avventura

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. An iconic piece of challenging 1960s cinema and a gripping narrative on its own terms, L’Avventura concerns the enigmatic disappearance of a young woman during a yachting trip off the coast of Sicily, and the search taken up by her disaffected lover (Gabriele Ferzetti) and best friend (Monica Vitti, in her breakout role).

Michelangelo Antonioni invented a new film grammar with L’Avventura, which caught many audiences who were expecting a mystery by surprise; as in La Notte (1961), L’Eclisse (1962), and Il Deserto Rosso (1964), Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection. This controversial, international sensation is a gorgeously shot tale of modern ennui and spiritual isolation.

This film is part of our tribute to Monica Vitti.