Saturday, March 30, 2013

Michelangelo Antonioni: L'Avventura (Take II)


In the basic set-up for Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960), we see Anna (Lea Massari, pictured above) at odds with her monied father, who is pointing to a new housing development project that involves decimating a beautiful villa.

Anna is rich but not particularly happy. Her sporadic fiancé Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti) irritates her. She is restless. Her state of mind reminds me of the Iggy & the Stooges lines:

Sick of hanging around your pad
Sick of your Mom and sick of your Dad
Yeah and [Sandro] it's sad but true
Now I'm even sick of you . . .

Anna and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti) eventually go along with Sandro to meet up with a handful of others for a boating trip on the Mediterranean. At one point, Anna dives into the sea for a swim -- and then yells "Shark!" This turns out to have been a lark, but she only tells Claudia.

The boating party eventually lands on a little island off the north coast of Sicily. There are ancient ruins there, and at one point, a bumbling dude holds up a centuries-old vase only to drop it -- having survived for ages, he manages to smash it into fragments in a matter of seconds.

All of this early stuff leads up to a pivotal scene in which Anna basically tells Sandro off -- she doesn't want to marry him, etc. He is dismissive and takes a nap. When he wakes up, Anna is gone. But to where?

That's the set-up. A lot of other developments accrue in response. Characters forced to do various and sundry, make decisions. Too bad for them!  As for Anna, there are sightings of her on Sicily and so forth, sort of like Elvis sightings. Is she alive? Is she dead? What next? What next includes a drawing together of Claudia and Sandro in a strange sort of way (though not so strange for Sandro, I suppose). And there's more!

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.  

1 comment:

jodi said...

Okay, now you left me hanging. All women feel that way at some time!