Guide Rating -

Length: 145 minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated

"L'avventura" is Michaelangelo Antonioni's great 1960 Italian-language masterpiece of world cinema. Antonioni is first and foremost about images, and the Criterion Collection DVD preserves his images beautifully. In addition, the DVD provides an illuminating commentary by film critic Gene Youngblood and comes packaged with a second disc that contains unusual bonus materials of interest to film buffs. I love the "L'avventura" DVD set, and I've spent hours with it, gradually deepening my understanding of this wonderful, complex movie.

"L'avventura," which translates into English as "The Adventure," chronicles a journey taken by Claudia (Monica Vitti), a single woman in her late twenties. Claudia leaves her home in Rome and travels to several places in Sicily, but the film is really about her journey to greater self-knowledge. Her story is told mostly in visual terms; the characters have difficulty in communicating verbally with one another about things they really care about.

As the movie opens, Claudia, her friend Anna, and Anna's boyfriend Sandro leave to join a few other people on a yacht trip. Along the way, Claudia learns that Anna is unhappy in her relationship with the handsome and socially adroit Sandro. When the yachting party pauses to explore a tiny island off Sicily, Anna mysteriously disappears. Claudia and Sandro set out to look for Anna, visiting some fascinating places in Sicily during the course of their search. Soon Claudia finds herself falling in love with Sandro, which plunges her into internal conflict because of the uncertainty as to whether Anna will come back or not. But along with Claudia, we gradually learn some unpleasant truths about Sandro. How foolish I was to fail to grasp on first viewing that "L'avventura" is, among other things, a strange and melancholy love story!

The audio commentary track by film critic Gene Youngblood has proven to be very helpful in increasing my appreciation of this difficult movie. He's especially good at explaining Antonioni's unconventional film grammar. During his commentary, Youngblood reminds us that Antonioni had no interest in revealing a solution to the mystery of what became of Anna -- instead, he was concerned primarily with Claudia trying to find herself.

Disc Two contains a 58-minute documentary made in 1966 that traces Antonioni's career up to that point. Most of the documentary is in Italian, except for the voice-over narration, which is in French. There's quite a bit of footage here that will be of interest to Antonioni fans, including a deleted scene from "L'avventura" where Claudia and Sandro have fun playing a silly game with a street vendor they encounter.

Disc Two also contains recordings of Jack Nicholson reading two provocative essays written by Antonioni: "L'avventura: A Moral Adventure" and "Reflections on the Film Actor." Nicholson starred in one Antonioni film, namely "The Passenger" (1975), and the DVD contains a few minutes of the American actor reminiscing about his own association with the great Italian filmmaker.

Selected Special Features on the DVD:

• Two-Disc Set
• Audio Commentary by Film Critic Gene Youngblood
• 58-Minute Documentary: "Antonioni: Documents and Testimonials"
• Jack Nicholson Reads Essays by Antonioni
• Theatrical Trailer
• Restoration Demonstration
• 
  

DVD Sound and Picture Quality:

• Picture Quality: Excellent
• Sound Quality: Excellent