L'Avventura

1960 Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni

A new adventure in filmmaking...

Claudia and Anna join Anna's lover, Sandro, on a boat trip to a remote volcanic island. When Anna goes missing, a search is launched. In the meantime, Sandro and Claudia become involved in a romance despite Anna's disappearance, though the relationship suffers from guilt and tension.

Gabriele Ferzetti Monica Vitti Lea Massari Dominique Blanchar Renzo Ricci James Addams Dorothy De Poliolo Lelio Luttazzi Giovanni Petti Esmeralda Ruspoli Jack O'Connell Angela Tommasi Di Lampedusa Franco Cimino Prof. Cucco Giovanni Danesi Rita Mole Renato Pinciroli Enrico Bologna Vincenzo Tranchina Valeria Perri

Alternative Titles

L'isola, Das Abenteuer, The Adventure, Pustolovina, I peripeteia, Serüven, De elskendes eventyr, Avventura

mystery drama

144 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★★★ 2

A bit of advice for the European bourgeoisie: never, ever travel, especially on vacation. According to the movies it's guaranteed to reveal uncomfortable truths, disrupt your relationships, and/or generally throw you into existential crisis.
Review by FernandoFCroce

The modern girl who vanishes and is replaced, the ancient vase that's broken with a shrug, "it figures." The foundation is Rossellini's, Michelangelo Antonioni's dilation ponders Europe and its ominous, vacant spaces. "Islands, I don't get them," says the dowager aboard the yacht, voicing Shelley's complaint ("stones, stones, stones, nothing but stones!") as a gigolo's hand idly creeps under her blouse. The Roman diplomat's daughter (Lea Massari) can no longer endure "the usual uneasiness" and evaporates in the volcanic Mediterranean terrain, as simple as that. Leading the desultory search are her architect fiancé (Gabriele Ferzetti) and the friend (Monica Vitti) who's cursed with "the need to see everything clearly." People fade like newspaper articles, the friend's romance with the beau…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★ 3

97/100
Pure, emotional, devastating, honest, haunting, and mysterious cinema of an indescribably radiant and evocative order. Michelangelo Antonioni's brilliant abandonment of conventional narrative simultaneously plays as both a hidden lie and an outspoken cry of anguish. Characters seem incredibly shallow at first, but that's only in order to provide the building blocks for such a resonant and deeply human conclusion. For a film that builds its metaphysical layers so blatantly, It's a genuine marvel how concise and formal L'Avventura feels.
It's as if Antonioni was born to break down every concrete rule of cinema, and in the process of destruction, the shattered pieces came together in a wholly unexpected way. L'Avventura, if nothing else, reminded me of a puzzle that looks just as beautiful with half of the pieces missing. I have a feeling that my love for this film hasn't even remotely reached its peak.
Review by Sean Baker 13

Revisited because I'll be seeing a 35mm print of La Notte next week at The Egyptian. Was a pleasure to revisit.
Watched the gorgeous Criterion restoration on FilmStruck.
Btw, has anybody seen of the Carlo Di Palma directed films with Monica Vitti? Teresa the Thief, Blonde in Black Leather or Mimì Bluette? And are they available?
Review by Monday Seagull 2

The prettiest girls are almost always the most boring, and that is why some people feel there is no God.
(Woody Allen)
I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.
(Ludwig Wittgenstein)
Only boring people get bored.
(My Mom)
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½

63/100
Similar reaction to La Notte—magnificent for about an hour (in this case, roughly until Claudia makes Sandro get off the train), diminishing returns thereafter. Obviously, the returns are supposed to diminish in a narrative sense, but a certain weariness creeps in formally as well, especially compared to the electrifying stasis on the island. Antonioni favors one shot in particular that I'm surprised more filmmakers don't steal, in which a character starts out in close-up, walks away some distance, and then a second character steps into the foreground—the sudden disruption of the plane is a real jolt. At any rate, the first half of L'Avventura does for landscape what the first half of La Notte does for architecture, and my issue with the second half isn't about thwarted expectations. Ditching the mystery of Anna's disappearance is fine; replacing it with the banality of Sandro getting hot for a va-va-voom aspiring actress is a bit tiresome.
Review by Ethan ★★★★★ 8

“Words are becoming less and less necessary; they create misunderstandings.”
A wealthy listless young woman disappears during a boat trip around the rocky Mediterranean islands off Sicily. She is never heard from again; it is almost like she never existed at all. Her disaffected lover Sandro and best friend Claudia spend months trying to find her, but their relationship slowly devolves into a love affair fraught with guilt and tension.
Michelangelo Antonioni’s enigmatic L’Avventura premiered at Cannes in 1960 to a famously divisive reception. Audience members shrieked and hollered at the film, dissatisfied with his frequent use of long takes. The reaction was so disheartening that Antonioni and the star of the film, Monica Vitti, fled the screening. The next…
Review by Lara Pop ★★★★★ 22

#Existential Musings Vol. 3.
#L'Avventura
#Antonioni

'Tell me you love me.'
'I love you.'
'Tell me again.'
'I don't love you.'
The little scoundrel. I knew he was no better. I knew it and yet I clung to him like a drowning woman clings to the shipwreck of her soul. I despise myself. I hear him slowly tread behind me as I look at the ruins in front of me and wonder if they'll ever be whole. I hear him sit down on the bench, laden with remorse (he isnt though he isnt listen to your instincts he just wants you to believe he is dont trust him dont go to him dont even tur...) I turn around and look…
Review by CinemaVoid 🏴‍☠️ ★★★★

It’s always uplifting to watch rich people bored out of their minds. Maybe the third world isn’t that bad.
Review by Zegan ★★★★★ 2

Sebenarnya ini film yang pertama dari triloginya Michelangelo Antonioni, tapi saya nontonnya malah yang paling akhir, tapi ngak papalah karena setiap film ceritanya beda dan juga ngak ada kaitannya antara satu sama lain.
Saya bahkan awalnya ngak tahu kalau L'avventura, La Notte, dan L'Eclisse adalah sebuah trilogi, tahu kalau ini trilogi pas kemarin-kemarin sehabis nonton film terakhir dari trilogi ini yaitu L'Eclisse yang mana waktu itu saya tertarik untuk nonton film tersebut karena ada aktor favoritku saja yaitu Alain Delon, dan setelah baca ulasan-ulasan yang ada ternyata film tersebut salah satu bagian dari sebuah trilogi yang disutradarai oleh Michelangelo Antonioni, jadi langsung tertarik untuk nonton sisanya, tapi karena ngak terlalu sempat, jadi ketunda nontonnya hingga sampai sekarang.
Dari ketiga film…
Review by Neil Bahadur ★★★★★

Antonioni: "The film was expressed through images in which I hope to show not the birth of an erroneous sentiment, but rather the way in which we go astray in our sentiments."
I've personally had a fascinating, checkered relationship with Antonioni through the years - sort of, in that I hadn't actively watched his films since I was a teenager, and didn't really understand them. L'Avventura I had at least liked stylistically but hadn't a clue what was going on, La Notte was a bore, Blow-Up I couldn't even finish, but for better or for worse I did like L'Ecclise. Whether it just be age or simple growth, ironically I now find L'Avventura and La Notte utterly exhilarating, Blow-Up genuinely…
Review by Evan Eaton ★★★★

Perhaps easier to admire than it is to enjoy, L’Avventura is a brooding, beautifully blocked existential journey through the unavoidable roots of human behaviour. Antonioni’s expert control of the elements calls back to the masterful form of Kurosawa, storms, waves and wind all balancing the moody tones of the story spectacularly. This is a key example of a film’s reputation preceding it, and although its minimalist style might elicit a vague sense of treading water, the intricate layering of its photography makes up for the plot’s intentional lack of conclusion. Tornadoes twist in the sky, dolphins peek out of the ocean into the foreign space above them, and desert islands throw jagged shapes into the night. Utterly audacious in every sense of the word.

Recent reviews

Review by Tyler Gaucheron-Land ★★★★★ 1

Today is an important day for me. I didn't know it would be at first, I mean how can you know when a day will become one of the most important in your development in any way? It was a normal day, I did my shopping, I scrolled through various social media apps, I listened to music but that was about to change. What makes this day so important to me is that this was the day that I was introduced to Michelangelo Antonioni and his masterpiece, L’Avventura.
There are certain landmarks in the development of my film taste. It changed after I watched films like The Blues Brothers and The Breakfast Club at 13 years old. It changed when…
Review by Anđela Jovanović ★★★★½

Prvi deo čuvene trilogije otuđenja.
Sam početak filma sugeriše da ćemo biti upleteni u ljubavni trougao. Međutim, režiser izbegava konflikt tako što se neočekivano i lukavo rešava jednog lika, čije ćemo prisustvo osećati tokom čitavog trajanja filma, ali fizička odsutnost natera i likove, ali i nas kao publiku, da zaboravimo (ali samo podsvesno) inicijalnu misteriju.
Antonioni je ovde dao potpuno novo značenje "road" filmu, videvši ga kao dobar format za prikaz konstantnog bežanja, opiranja, teškoće u komunikaciji. Tako je Sandro - glavni muški protagonista, koji je suštinski nezadovoljan, nesiguran u ono šta želi, brzo gubi interesovanje za ljude oko sebe - našao beg od stvarnosti u krakotrajnim uzbuđenjima. S druge stane, Klaudija, jedini lik čije postupke delimično možemo da razumemo,…
Review by guilherne ★★★★

além de talarica ainda é gada slc nao da.
esse filme é bom mas não sei pq algumas pessoas botam ele na frente de la notte
Review by azertyuio ★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Really enjoyed the first 30 mins, but then the rest, not so much. In the beginning I really liked the 'playful' mood and getting to know all of the characters and the setting and the sense of adventure of being at sea and exploring the island. But then I really felt like it really dragged on for way too long.
An important theme in this movie might be the transience of love and attraction and relationships. But is it really? Or is the man just a lustful liar who manipulates women in order to have sex with them? But in the ending he does seem to regret his actions since he is crying. Or maybe he is crying because he…
Review by Elie_Bartin ★★★★½

A travers ce portrait de femme des plus déchirants, Antonioni nous confronte à une bourgeoisie affligeante. Une personne disparaît, on la remplace par une autre (littéralement, avec les vêtements ou la coupe de cheveux), que l'on baratine à coups de belles paroles en faisant miroiter une intégration à un monde des apparences qui sont on ne peut plus trompeuses. L'avventura c'est Monica Vitti qui, longtemps éclipsée par sa meilleure amie, devient la femme que l'on regarde, que l'on "aime" mais est-ce réellement une bonne chose ?
Constamment, par sa mise en scène d'une précision chirurgicale Antonioni joue avec l'espace. De la scène d'amour de Lea Massari au début, où l'on voit Vitti coincée entre deux volets au loin, aux longs…
Review by lesslinear

I wish someone had pushed Sandro off the island
Review by SidneyUA ★

Старий нудний фільм про старих нудних людей. Соляріс (і я про планету, а не про фільм) простіше зрозуміти, ніж цих європейських буржуа з їхніми висмоктаними з пальця стражданнями.
Review by iman stardust ★★★★

there’s something about italian movies in black and white
Review by krysha ★★★★

The Problem......... Is Men
Review by secrets ★★★★½

Regret not starting the Antonioni trilogy in order (even though it's not necessary) because admittedly this wasn't as strong as La Notte however it was still a beautiful picture.
L'avventura starts out as a mystery but soon disintegrates into a deep study of alienation, non communication and the failure to find meaning in a world of obsolete values. Antonini has perfectly showcased the tragic effect these themes hold as people literally and metaphorically seem to disappear throughout the film.
Outstanding performance from Monica Vitti and it's becoming clear to see why she was casted for each film in the trilogy. The cinematography is consistently stunning with numerous breathtaking stills but that last shot really does stick with you doesn't it.
Second viewing from Antonioni and he has not disappointed at all. Eager to finish the trilogy off, got high hopes for L'eclise!
Review by Shiv6Patel ★★★★

7.5
Review by Zegan ★★★★★ 2

Sebenarnya ini film yang pertama dari triloginya Michelangelo Antonioni, tapi saya nontonnya malah yang paling akhir, tapi ngak papalah karena setiap film ceritanya beda dan juga ngak ada kaitannya antara satu sama lain.
Saya bahkan awalnya ngak tahu kalau L'avventura, La Notte, dan L'Eclisse adalah sebuah trilogi, tahu kalau ini trilogi pas kemarin-kemarin sehabis nonton film terakhir dari trilogi ini yaitu L'Eclisse yang mana waktu itu saya tertarik untuk nonton film tersebut karena ada aktor favoritku saja yaitu Alain Delon, dan setelah baca ulasan-ulasan yang ada ternyata film tersebut salah satu bagian dari sebuah trilogi yang disutradarai oleh Michelangelo Antonioni, jadi langsung tertarik untuk nonton sisanya, tapi karena ngak terlalu sempat, jadi ketunda nontonnya hingga sampai sekarang.
Dari ketiga film…