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Considered by many to be his masterpiece, L’Avventura positioned Michelangelo Antonioni as an international talent. What appears to be a search for a missing person is actually an examination of alienation and self-discovery found along a voyage through the morally decadent world of the idle rich. Less concerned with a smooth plotline, Antonioni tells his story through the use of symbolic images and flawless character development. Using 'real time’ camera shots and rich, landscape imagery, Michelangelo Antonioni creates an unpredictable world where nothing is ever resolved. Ironically, what makes L’Avventura so unpredictable is the high level of realism portrayed by each character and their environments. This isn’t your packaged, formulaic film with a happy ending. A tough one to watch but well worth it...and it gets better and better with repeat viewings. L’Avventura is quintessential Antonioini. Not to be missed. --Rob Bracco ... Read more

Reviews (41)

Best Criterion Collection DVD Thus Far; Excellent Commentary
L'Avventura is one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen and this DVD does it perfect justice. The transfer is pristine reflecting the breathtaking cinematography, and the commentary by film historian Gene Youngblood illuminates Antonioni's revolutionary genius by offering awe-inspiring insight into nearly every scene of the movie. Of all the commentary offered so far by criterion this is by far the best though the film is not necessarily for everyone. The pacing is a bit slow at times for the moviegoer who enjoys films with more action and overt sexuality(though the two lead actresses have beauty enough to leave you enchanted), but L'Avventura is always interesting for fans of film who want to learn more about the technique and art of moviemaking. The documentary provides a good overview of Antonioni's career and Jack Nicholson reads documents that provide knowledge of Antonioni's philosophy of art. If you have enjoyed prior Criterion Collection editions of great films this DVD is perfect for your collection.

"L'Avventorment. . ."
"After finishing L'Avventura, I was forced to reflect on what the film meant." -director Michelangelo Antonioni.

This is the greatest film about adult romantic relationships ever made. Every topic is touched on: infidelity, jeaslousy, male preoccupation with sex, female preoccupation with resistance, the urgency of love, and the futility ("why,why,why,why...") Is there a better? Perhaps I am underinformed.

And the sheer beauty! My God, it's enough to make you forget the plot. For picturesque rocky islands and splashing surf, this must be the Ansel Adams of Palermo. This is not to mention the rest of the film. As a friend of mine said, every frame could be in a book of modern photography. Antonioni knows how to frame his shots.

Enough, please, of this film being 'Boredom Personified.' Woe to those who are thoughtless enough to resist assimilating its message. This is not a film for children - or the childish. This film is partly about the psychological issues of love and romance in the modern industrial age. It is partly about keeping the difficulties thereunto connected, in proper perspective. Those who hold such an exercise as tedious, are advised to go back to the mall.

Yet, "For those who wish to listen, it will have a value beyond words."

Literally Dazzled
Monica Vitti is very blonde, very classy, pretty. She wore her Jackie Kennedy dresses with grace. The black and white photography of her white-dot suit literally dazzled. The scene where the Sicilian men stand about Monica (Claudia) like the scenes in Hitchcock's "Birds" made me very uncomfortable. The background is Italian Neo-Realism, rocks, sand, and the juxtaposition of old Italian Architecture, art, and communist style people's housing, empty and lifeless; I confess I drank about 2 bottles of water, more than my viewing of "Lawrence of Arabia." What happened to Anna on that volcanic island? Weird, L'Avventura (1960) is ranked on many cinema lists anywhere from #1 to #10.

a great film with beautiful imagery
This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

Michaelangelo Antonioni's "L'Avventura" also known as "The Adventure" or "The Fling" is hailed as a masterpiece by many critics.

In the film, a group of people go on a yachting trip in the Mediterranean sea. Later, a woman in the group disappears and they begin a fruitless search. One woman helps the vanished girl's boyfriend search for her, but they soon forget about searching and fall in love with each other.

My cousin, who is half Italian says that the subtitles on this edition are word-for-word unlike older copes of the film.
The cinematography is excellent and I agree with the statement made in the supplements about each indivudual frame being worthy of use as a photograph.

The special features on the DVD are good also. On the first disc is the actual film with optional audio commentary by Gene Youngblood. The second disc has a theatrical trailer, a restoration demonstration, a 58-minute documentary on the director, and audio of actor Jack Nicholson narrating writings by the film's director, Michaelangelo Antonioni, plus Jack Nicholson's recollections on working with Antonioni on the film "The Passenger" made in 1975

Fans of Italian cinema will surely love this release and many others would like it also.

The Most Pure Film Ever Made
No film is more pure in the cinematic sense than L' AVVENTURA. L' AVVENTURA is nothing like you've seen. It may be more than 40 years old and it still feels amazingly modern and refreshing. The first time I saw it when I was 18, I hated it ... it was so slow and dull and it was impossible to relate to any of the characters. But 15 years later, I came across the DVD and the picture of Monica Vitti with the "pyramid" in the backround evoked a very strangely powerful wave of images, sounds, and words. So I decided to give the film another chance. It was too beautiful and hypnotic that I couldn't stir for nearly 2.1/2 hours. After I got up from the couch, the world never looked the same again. I woke up the following morning feeling like a new person. I think the most perfect time to watch the film is around midnight when everything is quiet and dark. Turn off your phones and lock the doors. Turn off the lights and close the curtains. Push the "play" button and then the film will transport you to a totally new world that will haunt you eternally. But I think the film will work even more powerfully and beautifully if you wait for a week or two and watch it again. Most people I know "clicked" with the film during their second or third viewing. If you find yourself puzzled or even disappointed when L' AVVENTURA ends, that's okay. Don't give up. Wait for a few more weeks or even a year; then view the film again. You won't regret it; I can promise you that. The audio commentary by Gene Youngblood is magnificent. Make sure to listen to it. L' AVVENTURA is not called the landmark film for nothing. The Criterion Collection's treatment of the film is perfect - just like the film. ... Read more

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Continuing the "alienation trilogy" that began with L'Avventura and ended with L'Eclisse, Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte is a visually arresting, emotionally numbing exercise in chronic ennui. The film's anesthetizing effect is entirely intentional; Antonioni's central couple (Marcello Mastroianni as a self-absorbed novelist, Jeanne Moreau as his bored and wealthy wife) wallow in their own emotional desolation, constantly drifting--and in Moreau's case, literally drifting--from one disaffected scene to the next. Antonioni's pained study of modern detachment is richly supported by his visuals, often placing his isolated characters in a harsh landscape of empty glamor and even emptier emotions. Driving the point home is Monica Vitti as Marcello's would-be mistress; in their aimless lassitude, neither can muster the necessary passion. It's all too superficial to register with any lasting dramatic impact, but La Notte remains the fascinating work of a master, redefining how movies reflect the many facets of humanity. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Wonderful Film, Annoying DVD
This is truly a wonderful film. Moreau, Mastroianni and Vitti are perfect in Antonioni's expression of banality and dispassion in the modern age. Those put off by Antonioni's work, due to vagueness and slow pacing, will find "La Notte" extremely approachable. Also, I was amazed to how similar "La Notte" is to Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." The portraying of the emptiness of the main characters marriage not through dialog but imagery, the story structure, the wealthy friends party (end of "La Notte," beginning of "EWS"), the personal odysseys Moreau and Mastroianni venture on to spark up passion in their lives are all reminiscent of Kubrick's last film. I haven't heard of Kubrick being influence by Antonioni or not, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

Being that "La Notte" is such a visual treat, it is frustrating that the Fox Lorber DVD is so poorly put together. It skips, the audio often doesn't sync up with the actors mouths, there is a hiss that keeps on going on and off, and there are many scratches and smudges throughout. Oh well. Hopefully Criterion will pick this one up and do to "La Notte" what they did for "L'Avventura." That is the treatment this film deserves.

Marvelous cast by most compicated actor,actress and director
Giovanni Pontano is a writer, who is going through an existantial crisis along with an inspirational one. His relation with his life Lidia isn't any better, the two have problems communicating, a problem the writer has with the rest of world as well. On the day of the publiction Giovanni's latest book, the couple visit the Marxist editor Tomasso, who is in hospital dying of cancer. Later a long and tedious all-night party with various erotic encounters at the home of Milanese industrialist who wants to buy Giovanni's serve to underline the growing emptiness of their marriage. At the end of the night they found nothing more than a tenuous solution...

The film is a physological drama about the uncertainity of the modern man's feelings where various themes interlace : the solitude, the enemy, the money, the money, etc. symbols of empty and crazy world.

Jeanne Moreau's day-to-evening walk in the city is a commonpoint with nearly all Antonioni films; film character observes the society giving up all securities against people.

Monica Vitti, acts as the daughter of the industrialist; sharing the solitute of her secure life guaranteed by her father but an empty world and looking for the solution or something interesting in Mastroianni/Moreau characters that seem different but sharing the same problems in different way actually..

Yes, the DVD IS watchable
Several respondents here have criticized the transfer quality, citing cropping, hisses, wobbling, etc. Most of the "cropping" is attributable to television overscan, and you notice it more on this DVD because Antonioni makes such deft and unusual use of the far edges of the screen. There are DVD players available which can help compensate for overscanning, a problem originating from standard television sets and not this particular DVD. Regarding hisses, those recurring, distant industrial sounds you hear are on the original soundtrack. Undoubtedly they are meant to serve an emotional mood. One respondent reports that the image is so jumpy he couldn't watch the film; I simply didn't have the same viewing experience. A number of Criterion releases have more image wobble than this one. In fact, I'm impressed by the great sound and picture quality of this DVD. It's a huge improvement over the muddy version which Bravo used to broadcast, and notably cleaner than theatrical prints available in the US in the 1990s. While not perfect, this DVD delivers the aural and visual clarity which Antonioni deserves.

Antonioni at the top of his form.
La Notte was released over forty years ago, yet it is modern in the way it is filmed and the themes it portrays, testimony to Michelangelo Antonioni's skill as one of the great directors in film history. Antonioni communicates to us not only through the dialogue and artistry of the actors, but also through the images he painstakingly creates for us in each scene. It is a satisfying experience for viewers to have so much to work with as we construct meaning and truth value from what we see and hear.

In the opening scenes Giovanni Pontano, played by the young and brilliant Marcello Mastroianni, and his wife Lidia, portrayed by the great french actress Jeanne Moreau, visit a friend in the hospital and learn that he is dying. Lidia's discomfort is palpable as she moves about the room restlessly and hardly says anything. At last, she excuses herself and leaves the room and the hospital. The patient, a writer as is Giovanni, discusses Giovanni's new book. The patient has read fifty pages and hopes to finish the book before he dies. We sense that Giovanni is more interested in his friend's critical appreciation of his book than he is concerned about the health of the dying man.

This self-centeredness of Giovanni is confirmed when he leaves his friend to join Lidia. A disturbed young and attractive woman patient at the hospital, whom Giovanni had met briefly before visiting his friend, approaches Giovanni again and makes sexual advances toward him. The pair move quickly to the young woman's hospital room where they squirm about briefly on her bed before being interrupted by two nurses who are aware of the young woman's habits and tendencies.

When Giovanni meets Lidia outside the hospital he confesses to her, as they drive away in their car, what has happened. In this scene we get a sense of the history of this troubled couple. Giovanni is the worst sort of womanizer; that is, he is the kind who feels compelled to tell his wife of his various sexual escapades. She knows him better than he knows himself and passes off lightly what she has been told. Much of what happens later in the film is foreshadowed by the hospital visit and discussion in the car.

From the hospital Giovanni and Lidia return to their apartment and seem restless. They have been invited to the party of a rich industrialist, they decide not to go, and then change their minds while having drinks at a nightclub.

At the party Giovanni immediately is attracted to the industrialist's eighteen year old daughter Valentina, played well by Monica Vitti. Valentina is not only beautiful, but also provocative. She exudes energy and excitement and Giovanni is drawn irrestibly to her even though his actions can be seen by Lidia, who has finally arrived at her breaking point. She is used up and burned out. It appears as if her marriage is over, but La Notte only leaves us with appearances. The film may be over, but the troubled marriage may struggle on.

La Notte is not a story in a traditional sense, but more a series of episodes that take us deeper into the lives of Giovanni and Lidia. Mastroianni and Moreau are talented actors, as is Vitti, and Antonioni's direction is superb, down to the last small detail. Taking our eyes off the screen even for a minute is a mistake. Of course, having the DVD gives us the advantage of being able to go back and pick up some of the details we might have missed.

Those viewers who enjoy La Notte are almost certain to want to see Antonioni's masterpiece, L'Aventura, filmed a year earlier in 1960. Both of these early films of the master demonstrate Antonioni's immense skill as a filmmaker. The art and craft of moviemaking has been advanced under Antonioni's capable direction.

Just discovering the genius of Antonioni
I am a newcomer to this realm of genius film making and I corroborate the eloquent and articulate observations by the reviewer from Minnesota. I simply want to add that after seeing and studying my first two Antonioni films (l'Avventura and La Notte) I am struck by the fact that just about any frame from these movies resembles a Cartier-Bresson photograph. There are so many levels of satisfaction in these films, intellectually and artistically. They are crafted like a great literary work, as mentioned by another reviewer, in the sense that no detail is accidental or superfluous. And like reading a great book, you get back what you put into it in terms of observation. ... Read more

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This 1966 masterpiece by Michelangelo Antonioni (The Passenger) is set in the heady atmosphere of Swinging London, and stars David Hemmings as an unsmiling fashion photographer hooked on ephemeral meaning attached to anything: art, sex, work, relationships, drugs, events. When a real mystery falls into his lap, he probes the evidence for some reliable truth, but finds it hard to reckon with. Vanessa Redgrave plays an enigmatic woman whose desperation to cover something up only seems like one more phenomenon in Hemmings's disinterested purview. This is one of the key films of the decade, and still an unsettling and lasting experience. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (92)

Interesting film, but................
Okay, here's the truth about this film. If you are not into slow-plot movies, then you won't like this movie. Sometimes while watching the movie you wonder whether there is a plot at all. I had read the short story "Blow-Up" by Julio Cortazar which this movie is based on before watching the movie. And I thought that the plot of the movie was minimized greatly to show quiet scenes. All one really remembers of this film is watching this good looking guy (Hemmings) wrestle around on the floor with a couple of naked models, Hemmings developing pictures and looking at them over and over again until he realizes what he has been looking at all along (a dead body)..and a bunch of mimes in the end playing tennis with an imaginary balls.

Okay, so the first time you watch the movies it can be quite boring unless you are in the right mood. But the second time I saw it it was on DVD instead of VHS and the pictures and scenes are so fun to look at that you finally realize what director Antonioni was creating...A pituresque film...The plots become more interesting...

But here's the next thing..You should watch this film alone...This is not a good date film....Because you may be in the mood to watch it...but she might not...All I know is that this is a film you really have to be in the mood for. It can really make a date crumble...This should be seen with an sophisticated, intelligent person...

Julio Cortazar's story was mainly about a man who takes a picture and becomes obsessed with a woman he has photographed. After examining the picture day in and day out he finally realizes he has been staring at her because she seems to be staring at something...And then he realizes that she is looking at something laying on the ground some distance away...A body... Antonioni's film uses this plot in his film but expands on it with imagery and the story of this swinging 60s man.

Anyway, watch it, on DVD of course, cause it looks better, definitely worth owning if you like this kinda stuff.

A tad inflated.
Very influential "art" film of the 1960's, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. At first blush the setting seems to be Swinging London, but the city is curiously abandoned: empty roads, empty parks, empty cafes. Is this by design? Or merely illustrative of Antonioni's lack of funds? And those who DO populate the city seem more like art-house ideograms rather than Swinging Londoners. In other words, here somber, there somber, everywhere somber somber (e.g., mimes; zombies watching a Yardbirds concert; a painter who doesn't even pretend to know what his paintings mean . . . and such). This isn't London; it's Resnais (slightly more frenetic Resnais). The worst that can be said of the movie is that it probably hasn't aged well . . . starting with David Hemmings' white jeans. Viewers who were born any year after this movie was made will respond to the mini-orgy scene and the pot-party scene with an exasperated, "Oh, so what!" and get bored fast. But it's important to recognize Antonioni's daring, perhaps especially if what titillated Sixties' audiences seems tame in 2001. In large measure, Antonioni (and other avant-garde auteurs, of course) opened the doors to freer cinematic expression with movies like *Blow-Up* -- and all on the coattails of MGM, in this case! And while the Sixties "commentary" is now hopelessly dated, the way our fashion-photographer hero stumbles onto an unseen murder is ingenious, and the presentation of it is worthy of a master. I also love that spooky park, with its ceaselessly whispering trees. All in all, a fun "puzzle picture", tailor-made especially for college grads. Not by any stretch one of the era's more rigorous masterpieces -- such as the director's own L'Avventura -- but still important.

WARNING - DEFECTIVE AUDIO
DESPITE LOTS OF EFFORT, TROUBLE-SHOOTING, AND ASSISTANCE FROM HIGH-TECH-PROFICIENT FRIENDS, I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO GET THE AUDIO TRACK FOR THIS FILM TO PLAY. I HAVE HAD NO SIMILAR PROBLEM WITH ANY OTHER DVD I OWN OR HAVE RENTED. SO BE WARNED, DO NOT PURCHASE THIS DVD UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT YOUR DVD-PLAYER WILL PLAY IT. [Ironically, all the other special features on this DVD, including the trailers and a voice-over commentary track, have fully-functional audio tracks. It's just the main feature - THE FILM ITSELF - that has no audio!]

The Antonioni step
A phothographer (David Heminngs) gets a slapshot and he believes there's a murder in that picture.
The reality is elusive , and watch about your senses seem to reveal you . Nothing is like it seems . The hidden message underneath the script .
Antonioni has beencalled the master of the silence . And in this case , in his first american film he challenges our ancient beliefs , what we usually mean as common sense . What's the truth and where does it begin our disturbed or prejuiced perceptions about the real world . Obviously there's a bit message aboutthe drugs world in this statement.
The ending sequence in what we see? a mude tennis game is not pnly a sincere tribute to the timeless genius of the mimo art - Marcel Marceau - , but a clear reference about we state as truth many times what other senses vaguely pretend establish .

Movies as litmus tests
Another film that brings out the moral venality in Amazon "reviewers". I particularly love the one who was "forced" to watch it in a friend's film class & found it a "waist" of time. Let's see...the waist is where things ingested pass through on their way to the digestion process. But I doubt he was being that profound.

Then there are the ones who find the film dated, London too empty & the main character a horrible nasty. Well folks, it's true there are no friendly wizards, cute goblins or funny ogres in this one, so it may taste like harsh medicine to some. But Blow-Up was a real slice of the 1960s, take it or leave it. Not just the "life-style" (clothes, decor & behavior) which is perfectly rendered (& is probably what dates the film the most) but the sheer fragmentation of time & space, of event & response. This was Antonioni's particular area of expertise: space & emptiness filled with random human collisions supposedly suffused with "meaning".

Well, we certainly have adopted different attitudes today, haven't we? Everything with its socio-political subtext. The big problem, I think, with a movie like Blow-Up is that it doesn't easily let you pick which Side to Be On. It's very European in that way (Old Europe, to use current parlance).

Hey folks, when you look at a De Chirico (you should, you know), do you find the streets too empty, the perspectives too stark & arbitrary? ... Read more

Amazon.com

Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse rolls over you and wraps you in its stylish embrace.The plot, such as it is, follows Vittoria (luscious Monica Vitti, The Red Desert) as her engagement falls apart and she slowly falls into a giddy but anxious affair with Piero (Alain Delon, Le Samourai, Purple Noon), a trader in Rome's stock exchange. Like Ingmar Bergman (Scenes from a Marriage, Persona), Antonioni examines the nuances of human relationships--but where Bergman is dense and dialogue-driven, Antonioni is spare and visual (there's maybe a page of dialogue in the first fifteen minutes of L'Eclisse). Every frame is like an exquisite black and white photograph, yet there's nothing static about this movie. It's fluid, sleek, and graceful, achieving its own kind of visual music.L'Eclisse contrasts opposing elements: Light and shadow, noise and silence, laughter and death, love and money, desire and dissatisfaction.Critics often describe the movie as a portrait of modern alienation, but they focus too much on Vittoria herself; while she finds her own life wanting, all around her Antonioni's camera captures a much larger world, full of as much vitality as despair, as much hope as loss. This is a movie essential to anyone's understanding of what movies can be. --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Description

Eighty-six year old Italian master Michelangelo Antonioni is considered one of the greatest living directors, his prolific career spanning a fifty year period. He recently received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement and the American Film Institute's highest honor. Image Entertainment is proud to present the DVD of Antonioni's latest work, the European success "Beyond the Clouds." Told from the dreamlike perspective of a wandering film director, the movie weaves four stories of love and lust, inspired by Antonioni's writings about enigmatic, unrequited or unresolved relationships. Set in several beautiful European locales such as Portofino and Paris, the film uses striking compositions, sensuous shots of lovely nudes and a moving musical score (featuring Van Morrison, U2 and Brian Eno) to create a radiant meditation on love and desire. The film is co-directed by Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club, Wings of Desire) and boasts an eclectic international cast including John Malkovich, Sophie Marceau, Irene Jacob, Jean Reno and Vincent Perez. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

Cloudscapes form a Great Director
The great Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni spins four dreamy tales into an uneven confection concerning passion and connectivity. Though not as bitter as La Notte or L'Avventura (two of his masterpieces), in this film Antonioni seems more pensive and nostalgic for the tragedy of passing time and lost love. A great cast fills the landscape of lovers trying to connect and passions boiling beneath the surface, some fulfilled, others disappointingly engaged. John Malcovich wanders through the film as a narrator connecting the threads of the four stories (the direction assisted by Wim Wenders due to Antonioni's age and the after effects of a stroke), and the international cast of Peter Weller, Irene Jacob, Vincent Perez, Sophie Marceau and Jean Reno are perfectly tuned in to the director's icy, haunting style. A brief cameo by Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau (stars of La Notte) is touching and sad. This film is a must for Antonioni's fans, his scene composition and camerawork are still among the best of any living director.

Whole Lotta Brooding Goin' On
I think a more apt title for this film would be "Who is John Malkovich and why is he following me?" Leaving that mystery aside, BYC has obvious merits. It's visually evocative and pleasing, as all Antonioni is (though not on the richly symbolic order of L'Avventura or the other films in the "tetralogy"); and from the standpoint of a heterosexual male, you can't beat the triple whammy of Sastre, Marceau and Jacob. Beyond that, however, I found it to be pretentious and overly-ponderous, as if it were a parody of all things bad in foreign films, in the same way that a parody of an American movie would be overproduced with scant character development and an excess of car chases, gunplay, and explosions.

Tschuess to Philadelphia
I believe elmoderno saw some forein films, but it was obviously useless for him. He didn't understand a word in the film. This is the reason why most of Russians laughing at Americans adolescence maximalism and inability to think about and understand really deep and serious European films. They can't even hide their narrow-mindedness, as we can see. Every person can read the texts (it can be texts in the books and in the films and anywhere else as well - all our world is the text for reading and understanding) using some interpretative codes, which he has by force of his education and his environment. So this is not the question of Wim Wenders absolute Genius - this is the problem of personal ability for reading and understanding the meanings which contain the text (the film in this case)!

A Short Guide to Beauty vs. Meaning
There are those who appear to have difficulty understanding or appreciating this film.

BEYOND THE CLOUDS obscures meaning with its beauty for many viewers. However, perhaps the director wishes us to exercise our imaginations and understandings beyond the perception of surface beauty.

It is difficult in spots. The scene where the young male lover can barely get himself to touch his girlfriend, then leaving in disgust, is disturbing. It is reminiscent of the painful moments in Antonioni's 1964 color film, 'Red Desert.'

Yet all of Antonioni's films, as other viewers have here and elsewhere indicated, are throbbing with meaning underneath their often quiet surfaces.

Some of the cafe style speech of some of the characters in these four strung-together tales is considered a little too 'New Age,' and superficial in tone. True, that which sounds like pseudo-philosophy can be irritating...

However, such stretches do appear in Antonioni's other films. The director ventures to depict such ramblings in order to reveal their social and psychological style, 'music,' and their possible real meaning. Perhaps they take a little thought for the viewer. An Antonioni film is a real experience. Watching BEYOND THE CLOUDS more than once may be necessary, in order to come around to the director's point-of-view.

Perhaps approaching this film as a lengthy contemplation or meditation, rather than just a clever stretch of footage, is the best approach. It is difficult to appreciate right away, like most of Antonioni's films, because it is deeper than it seems on first viewing.

Some have been annoyed with the apparent lack of unity of these four tales. Yet look again. Perhaps an underlying unity in this film eluded you on first viewing. Perhaps perceiving needs a chance to gestate, and grow.

Others have been annoyed with the choices of 'pop' music the director chose to line his film with. Yet we have come to lose sight of the issue of 'layers of meaning' in a film or other works of art. We no longer wonder why a director chooses his music: we simply condemn him for his choices outright, and at first hearing, without thinking.

Still others condemn the film for what they perceive as gratuitous soft-core nude scenes. Perhaps they are. Yet, perhaps they mean to say something else within the context of BEYOND THE CLOUDS.

I think this thoughtful, demanding, and beautiful film is one of the best bargains on the 'art' film market today (or any other day.) It is definitely worth owning and watching more than once...

I hope this helps.

BEYOND THE CLODS . . .
...some of us, I bet, are getting a little tired of the childish Antonioni bashing that seems to go on. Antonioni bashing not just here, but all over the place...

... I resonate completely with the Amazon.com reviewer who asserted about one other Antonioni film, that it's no surprise that in the age of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), there is little appreciation for the subtleties, delicacies, and
savoir faire of the patient, conscientious, understanding, intuitive, unpretentious, careful, and wise efforts of Michelangelo Antonioni. . .

... the truth is Antonioni's subtle work is TOO good. By some sort of all-too-common common flip-flop neanderthal logic, jewels like BEYOND THE CLOUDS run afoul of lesser minds who are be predisposed to insist it isn't good ENOUGH ...

. . .I think people are afraid of being thought of as thoughtful, and therefore "dangerous," in this day and age. Hence they bash quiet films like BEYOND THE CLOUDS.

...well, I've seen BEYOND THE CLOUDS six times before I bought my copy the other day. It is fit to stand beside Antonioni's RED DESERT as one of the most beautiful color films ever made. Without a Monica Vitti to "guide" us through the film, perhaps the four subtle tales of love, loss, trauma, and reflection that make up BEYOND THE CLOUDS take a few viewings to truly appreciate. But that's what many serious critics say of ALL Antonioni's films...

...sip like a fine wine. Smile at the adult children who look down on BEYOND THE CLOUDS. Rest in the hope they all come across the experiences they need to come around to an appreciation of Antonioni, via intelligence and a newfound understanding...

... I've watched my recently acquired VHS copy of BEYOND THE CLOUDS six times already in the past few days. It is divinely worth it, and my love for it grows with each viewing...

...get your own copy, and do the same...

... the flower, unmolested, blooms and shows all its colors. ... Read more

Description

Richard Harris and Monica Vitti star in writer/director Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece. An alienated Italian wife searches for meaning in the industrial lunar landscape of Northern Italy, to no avail. Highly acclaimed as a masterpiece of visual form and the winner of the International Critics Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival in 1964. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Great DVD transfer of a disappointing Antonioni movie...
If you are a fan of the great Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, you have never heard of "Le Amiche" and are buying this DVD because of the director, you are in for a disappointment. There are good reasons why you haven't heard of this film! Sporting a great black & white DVD transfer by Image, the movie is an early effort that goes nowhere and is ultimately unsatisfying. While the acting is adequate, and it is amusing to get a good view of Italy in the 1950s, the story is poor and superficial (the film is based in a story "The Girlfriends.") Ostensibly dealing with the same subjects that Antonioni will continue to revisit in later movies, this one fails to get into any of them with any depth.

In summary: The movie gets ** two stars, the DVD quality gets **** four stars. If you can rent it cheaply, give it a try, otherwise pass.

FIlm=4.5 Stars/ DVD=3 Stars
For those approaching it in 'historical reverse', that is AFTER knowing the 'Trilogy' ("L'Avventura" "La Notte" "L'Eclisse") and "Il Deserto Rosso", "Le Amiche" is striking in the way it prefigures nearly all the themes the director would continue to explore in his somewhat more daring works of the 1960s. In the character of Clelia (played by the beautiful Eleonora Rossi Drago) can be seen the ancestor of Monica Vitti's Claudia in "L'Avventura": she is an outsider, curious and compassionate, who is coming to terms with her own sense of self. Gabriele Ferzetti plays Lorenzo, a frustrated artist, much like his lost architect in the same famous film. And in Rosetta (Madeleine Fisher) is prefigured the enigmatic Anna go 'goes missing' on the immortal volcanic island. Yvonne Furneaux's Momina embodies the superficial leisure class characters with whom Antonioni will continue to populate his next three or four films. And Nene (Valentina Cortese) acts out the director's great theme of forgiveness.
But it is not just in the characters that "Le Amiche" points toward the future. There are many scenes of wandering, along city streets, or beaches. Casual sexuality it presented not for its sensual or aesthetic appeal, but as an empty attempt to connect. And the great chasm of miscommunication between men and women is on full view. Yet, even in 1955 the director knows that all is not black and white. Characters of the same gender don't really understand one another either. The film is posing a difficult question: is it possible to 'be yourself' and still need others? Clelia finds a difficult answer, while Nene seems to find its mirror image.
And speaking of mirrors, the famous Antonioni 'doubling' is here in germ form as well. In the very opening shot, Clelia looks into the hotel bathroom mirror while drawing her bath: she is about to find her self divided in her feelings about her soon-to-be new friends and her old home town of Torino. Later, she regards her reflection in a shop window mirror before deciding to pursue a romance with the handsome Carlo (Ettore Manni).
Possibly most interesting of all is Rosetta, who, in attempting suicide, is trying to 'disappear'. The film makes it more than clear that this character has no real sense of self: she is dependent upon the affections of a man and the perceived loyalty of her mostly vacant friendships. There is a telling scene with Lorenzo in which she feeds off his flattery. And, in a beautifully acted scene aboard a train, Clelia tries to help her understand the importance of connection to others, never realizing how unstable Rosetta truly is.

Antonioni would in his next feature, "Il Grido", begin to streamline his technique. "Le Amiche" has far more characters than he would later prefer, and they talk constantly. There are virtually none of the characteristic, nearly silent sequences that will inform his later works. Nor does landscape play as commanding a role it will assume in the 1960s. While the two main narrative threads of "Le Amiche" (Clelia and Rosetta/Lorenzo/Nene) will be reduced to one for nearly all his remaining films.
Complex, dramatic, and visually seductive, "Le Amiche" is not just a fine early work by Antonioni, it deserves a place beside his more famous achievements.

The DVD issue of "Le Amiche" is up to the best of Image Entertainment in terms of quality of the sharp and clean transfer. There are no extras to speak of, but it well worth having such a fascinating film in the new format.

Antonioni's first significant film
Le Amiche was made in 1955, and was the first significant film from Michaelangelo Antonioni. This film follows a Roman woman named Clelia who, in an effort to improve her life, moves from the city to work at a small shop. She finds the lives of the small town is much less pleasant than she suspected. The women that she befriends are allowed to show a surprising range of emotions, especially for a film made in the fifties. The film seems to suggest that you cannot have a sense of self if you rely upon others. It definitely feels like an Antonioni film, even if it's more talky than his average work. The plot never really feels melodramatic, even though the events could easily make it feel that way. I would reccomend the film highly. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Antonioni As A Mature Auteur
I still remember the first time I watched this film in a small art house in Taiwan ten years ago. It was an amazing experience. I came out into the warm and bright sunshine, shaking and totally thrilled. The daring eight-minute long take near the end really sums up the film, in which Antonioni asks a question that has been with us since the beginning of human existence: Is freedom nothing but an illusion? Antonioni, without a doubt, stands tall among the most honest, original, and skillful filmmakers such as Ozu, Tarkovsky, and Resnais. I thank God (if He is really up there) for giving us these artists.

One of the best films ever made.
Jack Nicholson plays David Locke, a successful but jaded reporter in a mid life crisis. His mixed up mid Atlantic origins, failing marriage and dissatisfaction with his work come to a head in a small hotel in an obscure town in a war torn African country. The only other guest is the enigmatic business man Mr Robertson who confesses to having no family or friends only a list of appointments. The mid-life crisis fantasy turns into reality for Locke when Robertson dies from a heart attack. Locke switches passport photos, assumes the other man's identity and heads off to keep the apointments.

The list of apointments in the dead man's diary lead Locke on a journey across Europe. He is pursued by a team of assassins who, believing him to be the real Mr Robertson, want to kill the man selling guns to the rebels in their country. Also on the trail are the police together with his wife who is the only other person in the film to have realised the identity swap. Despite the state of her marriage, (she has taken a lover) she still cares about him and wants to warn about the danger that he faces.

No mid life crisis film would be complete without the younger woman with beautiful eyes and no past herself who falls for the leading man. Maria Schneider plays this role very well providing both an innocent acceptance and a sophisticated understanding of Locke's game.

Very few actors could have played the part of Locke as well as Nicholson. He brings an air of detachment to the part that fits in with the character's behaviour. He is taking part in another man's life but as a spectator.

As well as the storyline, the film is shot with the artistic poise and exquisite technique that I always enjoy when I see the work of director Antonioni. From the scenes in the African dessert to the final moments in a small sun baked Spanish town, the film is a joy to view. At the end of the film comes one single camera shot that is quite magical. The scene starts in Nicholson's hotel room and slowly homes in on the barred window. We zoom towards the window and then fly out through the bars into the square outside. Then slowly, the camera, now clearly on the other side of the bars pans around the square before returning to view the window from the outside. At the time, this was the longest and technically the most demanding camera shot ever attempted.

Antonioni As A Mature Auteur
I still remember the first time I watched this film in a small art house in Taiwan ten years ago. It was an amazing experience. I came out into the warm and bright sunshine, shaking and totally thrilled. The daring eight-minute long take near the end really sums up the film, in which Antonioni asks a question that has been with us since the beginning of human existence: Is freedom nothing but an illusion? Antonioni, without a doubt, stands tall among the most honest, original, and skillful filmmakers such as Ozu, Tarkovsky, and Resnais. I thank God (if He is really up there) for giving us these artists.

Objective Examination Of Identity and the Self
In this highly formal excercise of cinema, Antonioni implements what is known as the, non-subjective or objective camera style, or as Antonioni refered to it, the "wandering camera." In the very first shot of the film, the camera pans across the rural African village and casually picks up Locke. We view Locke in a long shot as he pulls up in a jeep and exits to ask for directions, just then the camera resumes panning into an alleyway, away from the action and away from the protagonist. This technique is applied throughout the picture and raises philosophical and cinematic questions. Whose point of view are we observing? What does it mean to have the camera and the action function as separate entities?

Antonioni, whom I never found to be a "sound concious" director, creatively manipulates sound in this picture. In a startling sequence involving, Locke and Robertson, Locke uses a tape recorder to play back a conversation between the two men while Locke is working on a passport photo. In a single take, the camera again begins to wander away from the recorder unto a patio where we are now physically seeing the two men continuing this conversation. The men enter the house (there is a cut to the door) to have a drink. The camera now pans away back to original table where Locke was seated and there he is, still working on the passport, with the recorder beside him playing the conversation. <

This is my personal favorite Antonioni film and I regared it as his most important and one of the most important pieces of existentialist cinema. If you enjoyed this film try, Memories Of Underdevelopment by Thomas Alea.

A removal from what we call living...
Unlike Antonioni's two attempts at capturing the personal alienation brought about by the cultural changes of the 60s--Zabriskie Point and Blow-Up--The Passenger is a signficantly more grounded film that focuses as well on alienation, but uses a diversity of foreign cultures to underline one man's alienation from life regardless of location.

The two films prior to The Passenger, also set outside the director's native country, but now obviously dated, tried using specific individual cultural settings (America and England) to highlight the emptiness of human behavior in the face of shallow cultural values. The Passenger is a decidedly more timeless film because instead of focusing on a specific culture, it wisely focuses on an individual, a globe-trotting reporter, whose own focus is on war and revolution in third world nations.

David Locke begins to grow weary of his life that constantly exposes him to the negative forces between and within nations all too common in today's world (another reason this film is still tremendously fresh and powerful today). When another man with a similar appearance suddenly dies in a small remote African village hotel Locke himself is staying in, he assumes the other man's (Robertson's) identity and follows an international trail to keep the appointments in Robertson's little black book. This takes him from Africa to Germany to Spain.

Without giving too much away here, it becomes all too clear that Locke--now Robertson--wants to escape himself. Antonioni, in collaboration with brilliant scripter Mark Peploe, moves us with Locke/Robertson from place to place as he blindly follows his nose, or, more accurately, runs from other noses following him--one of which is his own. Another of them belongs to his wife who begins to believe her husband is still alive somewhere. Still others are those of the police. But the most dangerous noses are those of some of the same people Locke, while a reporter, passively interviewed. Now, as Robertson, his role is not so passive anymore.

In his haste to escape, Locke finds that Robertson was involved in a dangerous business that could result in the ultimate escape. This is a great film that fuses thriller elements with drama that penetrates because we see and understand what Locke thinks and does. Jack Nicholson's portrait of the escapee is right on the money; he sounds, at least half the time, as though he's not really sure that what he's saying is true, or that he can believe it--exactly what someone running from himself would sound like.

Antonioni emphasizes the isolation of people from each other in interesting visual ways. He often shoots scenes with the camera at a noticeable distance from the actors; we are physically removed from the action, and with this distance, there is the distinct feeling of what we see as observers being not really action, but a kind of indistinct or unclear version of action. As well, the camera intermittently closes up on Locke when he is doing nothing, or waiting, or is stuck in a rut (literally, in a sand rut when his vehicle is snagged in the African desert). These close-ups are a very effective counerpart to the distance shots; the first removes us from what could possibly be critical action, and the second hits us in the face with the opposite.

A real shame this is not on DVD. As of this writing (October 2003), the only DVD version is a Japanese Region 2 NTSC disc, very hard to find. ... Read more