Avventura

UPC: 037429156025

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Adult Situations, Not For Children]

Summary: This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent. The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna (Lea Massari), and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), who doesn't fit in with the wealthy jet-setters' dissolute ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a volcanic island, Claudia initially blames Sandro's emotionally barren behavior toward her. As they search the island, however, Claudia and Sandro grow closer and -- when it is apparent that Anna is gone forever -- become lovers. Unfortunately, Sandro cannot find anything decent inside himself and betrays Claudia with a local prostitute. Caught in the act, Sandro has a heartrending breakdown on a desolate beach, but Claudia silently forgives him. L'avventura caught many audiences who were expecting a mystery by surprise; as in La notte (1961), The Eclipse (1962), and Red Desert (1964), Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Best British Film – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Special Prize – Cannes Film Festival

Features: Disc 1:
Digital transfer with restored picture and sound, enhanced for 16x9 televisions
Audio commentary by film historian Gene Youngblood
New and improved English subtitle translation
Optional image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
Disc 2:
"Antonioni: Documents and Testimonials," a 58-minute documentary by Gianfranco Mingozzi
Writings by Antonioni, read by Jack Nicholson, plus Nicholson's personal recollections of the director
Original theatrical trailer
Restoration demonstration
A reprint of Antonioni's statements about "L'Avventura," circulated after the film's premier at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, and a new essay by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith

Avventura

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 06/05/2001

Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1 Alternate Wide-Screen

Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1, 1 USA & territories, Canada

Runtime: 143 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Avventura
1. Opening Credits [:19]
2. The Old and the New World [2:13]
3. "Goodbye Cruise" [2:09]
4. "Let Her Wait" [1:34]
5. "Shall We Swim?" [4:14]
6. "Shark!" [4:38]
7. "Which Shall I Wear?" [3:07]
8. "There's No Spark" [2:33]
9. "I Don't Feel You Anymore" [2:03]
10. "And Anna?" [3:19]
11. The Storm [11:49]
12. "You Love Anna" [4:16]
13. " An Ancient Vase" [6:49]
14. "Here's Anna's Father" [4:05]
15. "I'll Join You at the Montaldos" [3:40]
16. "And the Other Boat?" [3:02]
17. "When Will I See You Then?" [3:00]
18. "Come Away With Me" [3:15]
19. "My Name is Gloria Perkins" [5:15]
20. "A Lovely Clinic For Nervous Disorders" [4:11]
21. "How Does it Look?" [2:05]
22. "I'd Make a Beautiful Portrait" [2:38]
23. "I'm Not Coming" [4:51]
24. "Picture of Martial Bliss" [2:11]
25. "It's Not a Town, it's a Cemetary" [4:12]
26. "A Can of Paint" [6:33]
27. "Shall We Get Married?" [4:25]
28. "I've Been 23 Too" [4:22]
29. "I Feel as Though I Don't Know You" [6:17]
30. "A Sensible Childhood" [3:41]
31. "I'm too Sleepy" [4:15]
32. "One...Two...Three..." [5:45]
33. "I'm Afraid Anna's Back" [5:59]
34. "A Small Souvenir" [3:07]
35. Conclusion [2:24]
1. Intros [:19]
2. Imagery [2:13]
3. Interior Monologues [2:09]
4. Lady Montague's Apartment [1:34]
5. Cameo Roles [4:14]
6. Staying Afloat [4:38]
7. Exchanging Identities [3:07]
8. Caricature and Pathos [2:33]
9. Non-Communication [2:03]
10. Dead Times/Music [3:19]
11. Romance as Delusion [11:49]
12. Camera Work [4:16]
13. Antonioni's Background [6:49]
14. Interior Realism [4:05]
15. An Almost Silent Cinema [3:40]
16. Traditional Expectations [3:02]
17. Vitti and Antonioni [3:00]
18. Fall From Grace [3:15]
19. Caricature Scenes [5:15]
20. Princess Lampedusa [4:11]
21. The Question of Identity [2:05]
22. Claudia's Witness Role [2:38]
23. Emotional Withdrawal [4:51]
24. Film Novel [2:11]
25. Composition [4:12]
26. Theatrical Device [6:33]
27. Exteriors and Characters [4:25]
28. Architectural Subtext [4:22]
29. Objective Correlative [6:17]
30. Women in Film [3:41]
31. The Trilogy [4:15]
32. Internal Deliberations [5:45]
33. The Mystery [5:59]
34. Empty Spaces [3:07]
35. A Dormant Volcano [2:24]
Disc #2 -- Avventura
1. Introduction/Titles [5:49]
2. Friends and Ferrara [3:46]
3. Cronaca di un Amore [4:49]
4. Francesco Rosi and I Vinti [1:38]
5. La Signora Senza Camelie [4:18]
6. Cesare Zavattini [3:36]
7. Le Amiche, Valentina Cortese [3:08]
8. Fellini [1:59]
9. Music [3:11]
10. L'Avventura With Monica [6:45]
11. Cannes [2:01]
12. La Notte [2:22]
13. The Color of Emotions [4:03]
14. Hiding Behind the Camera [5:32]
15. Antonioni and the Actor [2:00]
16. L'Eclisse [3:09]

Lucia Bozzola

Catcalls greeted its Cannes Film Festival premiere, but filmmakers and critics recognized the artistic importance of Michelangelo Antonioni's experiments with psychologizing film narrative, and L'avventura (1960) was awarded a special Jury Prize. Abandoning the kind of cause-and-effect plot line that might be expected in a film about the search for a missing woman, Antonioni instead sought to examine the barren inner lives of the postwar rich; the "adventure" is in the encounters between characters as they attempt and fail to make emotional connections. Limiting the audience's knowledge of Anna's disappearance to what Sandro and Claudia learn, and depicting screen actions in real time, Antonioni turns viewing the film into a direct experience of the initial excitement over the search and the waning of involvement as the effort becomes fruitless. Antonioni's carefully controlled deep focus widescreen compositions further communicate the characters' existential ennui and psychic disconnection from each other in evocatively barren environments. Bolstered by the Cannes experience, L'avventura became Antonioni's first worldwide success; released within a year of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (1959), L'avventura helped announce a vital new era in international art cinema. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Lelio Luttazzi  Actor 
Giovanni Petrucci  Actor 
James Addams  Actor 
Renato Pinciroli  Actor 
Esmeralda Ruspoli  Actor 
Michelangelo Antonioni  Director 
Michelangelo Antonioni  Screenwriter 
Tonino Guerra  Screenwriter 
Luciano Perugia  Producer 
Elio Bartolini  Screenwriter 
Giovanni Fusco  Composer (Music Score) 
Gabriele Ferzetti  Actor 
Monica Vitti  Actor 
Lea Massari  Actor 
Dominique Blanchar  Actor 
Renzo Ricci  Actor 
Dorothy de Poliolo  Actor 

Country: France,Italy