• Genre: Drama
• MPAA Rating: Unrated
• AMG Rating:
• Regional Coding: 1
  USA and territories, Canada

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, All Movie Guide

Bonus 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

Actors

Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti, Lea Massari, Dominique Blanchar, Renzo Ricci, Dorothy de Poliolo

Director

Michelangelo Antonioni

Producer

Luciano Perugia

• 1960--Best British Film, British Academy Awards-Winner
• 1960--Special Prize, Cannes Film Festival-Winner

Adult Situations, Not For Children

• Sound : 5.1/1
• Language : Italian
• Subtitles : Eng

• Screen : WSE/B&W
• Dar : 1.77:1

Review

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, All Movie Guide

• Release Date : June 05, 2001
• Length : 143 Minutes
• Dvdsides : 2
• Dvddiscs : 2
• Upc : 037429156025