L'Avventura (The Adventure) (1960)

Antonioni used the alternative narrative system as an art cinema to build the boredom status in mind and the distance between one and others.



The film is approximately two and a half hours. The duration provides affluent scenes to show the subtle changes of feeling within a rather simple storyline. The whole story can be divided into three parts. First, Anna had some discord with her boyfriend, Sandro. However, one day, when these rich Italians yachted to an isolated island, Anna disappeared. Learning that Anna was missing, people started to find Anna, including Sandro and Anna's best friend, Claudia. After the futile search on the deserted island, Claudia and Sandro started the inland adventure of finding Anna. Last, a love affair between Claudia and Sandro started to brew.

In art cinema, characters are not psychologically rounded in order to reach realism (Kuhn A. P216). For instance, Anna had her way to demand for sex and to joke about the shark, which was taken serious by others. Unlike goal-oriented characters in classical cinema, most of those behaviors were descended from boredom.

Sandro in particular, would be the representative of this type of a bored person. He showed his tedium through doing something just to entrain himself. After Anna's disappearance, he substituted Anna of a bored person as well as a leading role. Take the boat trip for example, he threw away newspaper and did not care about others who might want to read it. The scene on the roof also demonstrated this trait. Sandro saw a drawing of a wall decoration on the floor. Noticing the artist was overseeing the city, he used a keychain deliberately spilled the ink and spoiled the drawing. These behaviors could account for his boredom making him do something to feel a little excitement. Moreover, for the search of Anna, the reason for him to do this was feeling out of boredom so covet to find something to do and to lure Claudia as well, rather than out of responsibility and love. Sandro was a meek and cunning person. He used tactics to protect himself from not being left alone. When close to the end, Sandro and Claudia went to a party. The theme song somehow rose and ironically, that was the time they almost forgot the mission of finding Anna. After Claudia fell asleep, Sandro sat in the bed hearing the sound of party decreasing and an unknown rumbling emerging and fading away. Then he clapped, as if setting mind to break the moral rule again, went out to find a prostitute. At the end, when his dirty business was discovered by Claudia, he cried, maybe for his fragility and inconsistence. In other words, Sandro’s personality of unfaithfulness and immorality do not share the same characteristics as a full-rounded hero in the classical narrative.

In general, a looseness of causality leads to unrelated events in art cinema. It may open up spaces, however, a digression within the narrative to show the psychological statement of the characters (Kuhn A. P217). Claudia originally was a virtuous woman, but she changed her attitude during the adventure. She was determined to find Anna—while waves were flapping on the coast, Claudia took risks to tiptoe to the edge of the rock trying to look for signs of Anna. She refused Sandro on the train for she was still worrying about Anna. Yet, her continuity was paused by the joyfulness among people in the mansion, who were thinking of going to the party instead of feeling the lost of Anna. This event indirectly pushes Claudia to forget Anna more and more. When she wore a black wig and said, “Am I looked like someone else?” it was the first turning point of her psychological statement. In addition, Claudia was invited into an occasion between Giulia and Prince Goffredo. Although Claudia was driven out for Giulia's sexual interest kindled in Gofferdo, she already witnessed an instant love. Thus, her later surrender to Sandro gradually was with only feeble psychological causation. That is, the defects in characters as ordinary livings construct realism.

To express realism, art cinema shows real problems (Bordwell D. P57). Why were those characters so bored and infirm? From Antonioni's ample application of extreme long shot and wide-angle lens, I would say problems resulted form people's lack of cordial relationship. Extreme long shot and long shot make everyone view individually. In almost every scene, you can always see a gap between people from they were standing disconnectedly. Long shot also serves a function as a feeling of coldness. Claudia should feel heart broken when she discovered Sandro’s intimate deed with a prostitute and understood what Sandro did was coaxed her into sex instead of loving her. In the extreme long shot, Claudia ran away silently. Usually there would be a close-up to show the sorrowful irritancy of betray, but the extreme long shot just made the atmosphere of the scene in some way calmly.

Wide-angle lens are used to enhance the distance, visually and psychologically especially when they are widely applied. During the search for Anna, people were separate on the island but long shot along with wide angles lens augment the remoteness between people. Another example to back up was a solider yelled at Anna's father, who is in the very foreground, rather than went to the face of the general. Likewise, when the rescue team can be see diving in the background, Giulia sat on the rock and simply gave a cold look, then turned away. This illustrates the indifferent connection between people, and the unconcerned manner toward Anna.

It was amazing how the background was always in focus, that sometimes distracted my attention. If it is a Hollywood classical cinema, it might be foreshadowing. Nevertheless, in the art cinema, it creates realism and demonstrates a problem in building relationship. When Claudia and Sandro caressed to each other, a train went by. It was as someone, probably Sandro, was not concentrated on the growing of relationship, which somehow slowed down passion a little. Other trivial background information also intruded as story went on. While waiting for Anna making love with Sandro, Claudia walked through a corridor and clearly heard people talking about paintings. The scene could be considered irrelevant to the whole plot. Additionally, when Anna bickered with Sandro, Claudia walked through in the background, which can also be viewed as disturbing. There is a thing worth noticing— most of sounds in this film are direct sound , which could also could be considered as interference. After the weather cleared up, Sandro and Claudia stood outside trying to find Anna. A loud helicopter noise disrupted their talk and they looked up but nothing came out, within the frame was only landscape. I was startled by all the sound flashback used in this film, and they paused the ongoing scenes.

After gallivant, the character never show up again, this play leads to a meaningless event (Bordwell D. P58). The story began with Anna, and she was an active role with most of the frames moved with her. When Anna interacted with Sandro, she would stand in a higher position showing that she was dominating the situation. Sandro was passive and obedient; Claudia was left outside. With a position likely to be a heroine, it a surprise that Anna would disappear. Even though everybody looked for Anna for a long time, the fact is that people did not care that much. During the search on the island, someone found an antique vase. While examining the vase, a man accidentally broke it. Nevertheless, no one cared or felt pity about it. The scene might symbol Anna's destination—she hung around with people, but after her mysterious disappearance, people care little about her. Furthermore, with the mature affair between Sandro and Claudia, the matter of whether Anna was still alive was totally left behind.

Art cinema features in ambiguity, and it tents to have an open-ended ending to make best use of this attribute (Bordwell D. P61). Anna never appeared in the rest of the film, and Sandro and Claudia end in an uncertain relationship. Claudia was still struggling with contradictory thoughts; Sandro's loneliness was still not cured. One could not predict the future with the element of disloyalty just made up a confusing status.

To sum up, plots in L'Avventura, which developed slowly through some apparently meaningless matter inserted, but truly showed something subconsciously. The boredom formed by solitude and the contradiction of immorality were displayed by the device of editing, sound, and cinematography. With those features, Antonioni composed an art cinema.

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Works Cited
Bordwell D. Film Criticism, Vol4, No.1. Film Criticism, 1979.
Kuhn A. The Cinema Book. British Film Institute, 1985

課程作業
March 24, 2006
Film 1B03, CO1
Dr. Christina Stojanova
Wanda Lee – 0640006

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Film info
導演：Michelangelo Antonioni
143分鐘

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