Film History. Years covered: 1880-2018. Studies by Movement, Country, Director.
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
FILM SCREENING - L'Avventura & Discussion
L'Avventura
This week's film L'Avventura is a particularly strange film in COVID times. Modernism can possibly seem quite cold and distant after Neorealism, but below the surface there are similar issues at play - one is steeped in wartime issues, the other post-war reckoning. Be sure to check out David Bordwell's video in the page after the film for further context and analysis.
The film stars Monica Vitti, which was a star making performance from her. It explores the empty and cold lives of various couples as they go on a trip through the Mediterranean Sea, as one of them goes missing.
Much has been said about the philosophy of this film over the years but we truly see it as a film, which explores the emptiness of these people's emotional lives and their lack of love in it.
It's incredible subjective, with many questions being asked of the audience with no answer.
Directors and writers have a lot to learn from someone like Antonioni who could do so much by having characters say so little.
One of Antonioni's most well known films is L’Avventura (1960). The film is about a group of friends that go to an uninhabited island. One of the friends Anna (Lea Massari) disappears and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti) and lover Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti) try to find her. They never do find Anna and seem to give up trying as the film progresses. Sandro and Claudia become lovers and Mast and Kawin suggest that the film expresses that betrayal is a fact of life.
Assignment post- movie
In at least 300 words, please respond to the following questions:
Please write about a scene from L'Avventura and explain how the scene illustrates one of the formal characteristics of modernism. Your post should identify and analyze one of the elements of modernism covered in the reading and Module. You also may wish to discuss other Italian modernist films and how their formal characteristics reflect modernist style. How are they different or similar from L'Avventura? You should embed a still or YouTube clip from the scene you choose from L'Avventura in your post. Please choose a scene that someone from your group has not already discussed.
Ida Z daRoza - Module 4 - L'Avventura (1960)
The introduction to this photo is that Sandro and Claudia, Anna’s best friend and her fiancé, gave up searching for her after a few days from when she got lost on a weekend cruise. They started an affair and in this scene they go to are at a mansion where there is a fabulous party.
They are amoral and seem unbothered for giving up and betraying Anna with their sexual affair which happened quickly after their friend’s disappearance. They’ve moved on and decided that they are in love, or is it sexual attraction?
In this scene Sandro and Claudia are up in their bedroom suite of the party mansion. Sandro hasn’t told Claudia that he loves her since they started their affair. Claudia asked him after they first had sex and he said why do i have to say that? He is playing with her emotions. He has proposed marriage to her already but did he mean it? She is internally tormented by not knowing what he is really thinking or feeling. In this photo she insecurely asks him to tell her that he loves her. First, he says he does and then she asks him to repeat it and he says I don’t love you. He’s doesn’t seem to care too much about making her feel secure in their new relationship. He is toying with her feelings doesn’t really care. After saying he doesn’t love her, he peaks his head in from the door and further confusing her says, yes, I do love you. Does he? We don’t really know. There isn’t enough narrative between the two to really know.
Antonioni doesn’t spell out in narrative what exactly is on the character minds. Bordwell says Antonioni withholds details seen in traditional narrative films. Antonioni’s style is unconventional, not spelling out the details or giving closure. Most of the information we get is visual with characters presented that we analyze the situations ourselves.
One themes of Modernist films is directors create a signature style in their films. Antonioni’s style withholds self-explanatory narrative and has cold, aloof characters. We also don’t get closure on the characters or at the end of the film. This is completely different from Fellini whose films style Mast and Kawin describe as “flamboyant and romantic…his characters search for love and meaning.” This is how he expresses his Modernist style.
Italian Modernist directors have their own filming and narrative style. It is known as their signature artistic expression. Antonioni and Fellini’s styles are distinct to them. The films are recognized as being of an individual director. Their unique authorship style is known as being an auteur.
I agree with the statement introducing Modernism, after Neorealism seems cold and distant. In Bicycle thieves we are taken on an emotional ride and feel the pain of the characters and know exactly why they are upset. We also see a joyous scene where the father and son distract themselves from their upsetting situation by having a Mozzarella sandwich and enjoying every bite.
In L’Avventura we see cold, wealthy people on a cruise that they don’t seem so elated about. Later Claudia and Sandro are at a party with lots of food and alcohol, they don’t enjoy the food like Bruno did his Mozzarella sandwich. Claudia and Sandro are bored by most things. They don’t show much emotion at all.
I watched Antonioni’s La Notte (1960) and it was similar in that the characters seemed displeased most of time and not happy or unhappy. Even going to a similar extravagant party, they don’t get excited about the wonderful buffet or drinks. We don’t know exactly why the wife is so moody to her husband. We haven’t been filled in on a narrative back story. She says a few times that she’s not in love with him but they proceed with the relationship and it is unsure if it will just continue this way with apathy.
I read that Antonioni’s three films L’Avventura, La Notte and L’Eclisse (1964) were produced consecutively as a trilogy mainly expressing alienation. This is a clear theme to me in both these films.
Thank you for your discussion developed around the modernist view of Antonioni. Claudia's need for security though Sondra's dialogue "I love you" and "I don't love you" reflects his psychological condition.
Just a few days ago Sandro was planning to marry Anna, now Claudia? What about Gloria Perkins, a journalist prostitute? The Alienation Trilogy may be seen through women's eyes but Sandro is a broken character who is addicted to sex. He has codependent relationships with women seeking security through men. Sandro has failed in his career never becoming the artist or architect of his youthful dreams. He resents the young artist narrowly avoiding another fights which he will loose.
What an ambiguous ending!
Bob
Thanks Bob, That Sandro is a rich playboy isn't he. And the ending? Antonioni playing with our minds.
I will say I did enjoy the added information at the end of your post about the the other two films that were made to go along with this one. I do think where you said "Antonioni doesn’t spell out in narrative what exactly is on the character minds." I felt like he almost blatantly shoved it in our faces. From what the characters were saying to the overly exaggerated body language. Anna repeatedly showes and says she wants to be alone. Sandro does everything he can to get Claudia to have an affair going as far as having a story printed in the paper. Don't you think it was all a bit to easy by trying to make it seem so overly complicated?
Antonioni doesn’t spell out in narrative what exactly is on the character minds. Bordwell says Antonioni withholds details seen in traditional narrative films. Antonioni’s style is unconventional, not spelling out the details or giving closure. Most of the information we get is visual with characters presented that we analyze the situations ourselves.
I can't imagine what a SHOCK this film was to an audience in 1960. Like an atom bomb. The ennui the idle rich characters endure is something that many people encounter - it is intense to be subjected to a whole cast of characters dripping in it. The quest for love, romance and/or connection seems the only driving force. To what end?!
Citlaly's post:
Italian Modernism
In the film L’avventura (1960) by Michelangelo Antonioni, we are introduced to the three main characters Claudia, Sandro, and Anna. They are economically and socially stable, yet the three of them seem to be alienated and in a search for any sort of meaning in their lives. Anna is not sure about her relationship with Sandro anymore and she is overall confused, Claudia lives under the shadow of her best friend and her own guilt, and Sandro is unable to feel deeply engaged with someone. These are all characters who live in a materialistic world, in a country where war is not present anymore and crisis is now within themselves.
One of the main settings in the film is an island far away from society. The island is alienated from the world and there is no existent life in it, the only thing we can observe are dark and crispy rocks. Ultimately, Antonioni uses the island as a representation of the characters’ feelings and state of mind. In a scene before Anna´s disappearance, she has a conversation with Sandro in which she expresses her disoriented feelings towards him while he listens with not much concern. The composition in the scene demonstrates how each character undergoes the situation. In one of the frames, Anna looks disoriented and her posture indicates that she is in agony, while Sandro is trying to understand her. Anna´s placement constantly represents how she is blocking Sandro and not letting him in her emotions. We can’t see much as Sandro is covering her body and giving his back to the camera, yet this also represents the mystery that remains within them. Many of the frames in this specific scene continue to portray these conceptions as the composition is quite similar.
Considering other Italian modernist films I believe that they continue to explore the relationship with our existence and how men and women relate to each other. The necessity to be with someone and ultimately to belong.
I always get good insight from your discussion posts. It was a good point that you made that they are economically and socially stable. This is a huge contrast from the Neorealism style where it is the opposite case. Even though their lives are stable in this way, there should be some contentment but in the Italian Modernism there is a malaise a lack of enthusiasm about being well off and they are lost in their heads wondering what does life mean. In our contemporary life there is wealth and comfort and people also searching for meaning and contentment in their lives.
The rocky island was a good prop Antonioni used, as it is as bleak and unfulfilled as their lives. It is a place of alienation as you said, mirrors their empty lives.
Thank you, Ida! Yes, I believe that we are still in the same situation that the characters are, in which we might be economically stable, but we still search for meaning in our lives.
I like that you included a side-by-side comparison so we can see how each character is reacting. We can clearly see that Sandro does not seem to be taking Claudia's concerns all that seriously. It is interesting that Antonioni decided to make this Anna's final scene in the film. I think this might have been done deliberately to give the viewer a hint about what happened to Anna, even though it is not actually explained in the film. The scene suggests that Claudia ran away due to Sandro not taking what she had to say seriously. Perhaps this has occurred multiple times already, and this conversation was the one that finally set her off the edge. Of course, we don't actually know the answer, but that is my interpretation.
While the film does not offer a definitive resolution of Anna's disappearance mystery, Antonioni in fact had one prepared. According to a french filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet, Antonioni admitted to him that the "missing" scene (showing Anna's body recovered from the sea) was scripted and actually filmed but did not make it into the final cut, apparently for timing reasons. Nevertheless, I think the way this mystery is treated only serves the film better.
Besides, even if we had seen Anna's body, the motive and details of what happened would have still remained unclear: was it a suicide, an tragic accident, or perhaps it was Sandro who pushed Anna himself in order to switch onto her attractive friend. We will never know, nor should we.
I like how you focused on the actors' body language in this scene. Physicality is such a powerful way to convey the relationship between two characters and this scene does a fantastic job of showcasing Anna and Sandro's dynamic. She is closed off and rarely faces him directly, always off to the side or with her back fully turned against him, meanwhile he is always following and facing her with each turn she makes. Truly a powerful scene and, sadly, the last we see of Anna.
Your post reminded me of an old Hagen Dazs commercial that played on stereotypes of deeply passionate Italian relationships. Looking at it again I see what you describe in the scene with Sandro and Anna!
Quiz
Question 1
1 / 1 pts
What sport do the mimes play at the conclusion of Antonioni’s Blow-Up (see clip in tutorial)?
Question 2
1 / 1 pts
Who directed The Tree of Wooden Clogs?
Question 3
1 / 1 pts
What becomes of Anna (the woman who disappears at the Aeolian Islands, played by Lea Massari) at the conclusion of L’Avventura?
Question 4
1 / 1 pts
Name the filmmaker who got his start working on the screenplays for Rome, Open City and Paisan. He later became one of the most well know Italian modernist directors in world cinema.
Question 5
1 / 1 pts
8 1/2, L’Avventura, and Salo, Or The 120 Days of Sodom are all examples of this artistic movement that characterizes many of the “art films” between 1950 and 1980:
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