FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Michelangelo Antonioni - L'Avventura 

No one loves no one. In L'Avventura there is talk about love. But only as a pastime. As an attempt to survive time. Just as well you could play a round of cards. There is not even the slightest possibility that the characters love/love/like each other. They are flat, ordinary characters. They can't feel lonely at all. The predominant feeling of these people is boredom. In the early 60s and still today Antonioni's L'Avventura was and is regarded as THE cinematic masterpiece at all! One would think that films that deal primarily with sensual pleasures are no longer of interest. But that's not true. In our video library Antonioni is still considered THE Italian master director! L'Avventura is about general mental illness. We see rich, inactive and decadent people for whom pleasure means everything. Pleasure is the only thing that sometimes prevents them from the hopeless boredom of their existence. Love does not exist, only sex. L'Avventura became famous because nothing happens. Someone disappears - no resolution. A search - without result. A group of well having friends goes with the yacht to Sicily. They anchor off an island, swim ashore. Anna (Lea Massari) argues with her "lover" Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti). They are accompanied by Claudia (Monica Vitti) and a group of "friends". Then Anna disappears. The group searches the whole island. There are hardly any hiding places, only bushes, yet Anna disappears. She is never seen again. Did I "spoil" now? No. It is generally known that Anna remains missing. That's not what L'Avventura is about, which translates as "the adventure". The lives of all those involved seem so unreal that one might think that they have all disappeared. At least one can hardly speak of existence, the relationships of these friends are so thin. Then a shocking scene: Sandro grabs Claudia, kisses her. Claudia withdraws. What does she think about Sandro betraying Anna so quickly? We don't find out. Later Sandro will tell Claudia that he "loves" her. Claudia accepts that. Anna is forgotten. Claudia takes over Anna's function. The function of the lover. What remains? Since Anna has disappeared, Claudia has to take over her function. Is Claudia afraid that Anna will return? Then she catches Sandro with a hooker. Claudia runs out. Sandro throws bills on the hooker's body. Welcome to the existential limbo! After the film, thoughts went through my mind. Antonioni's style, called "Antonioniennui", naturally found imitators. And yet L'Avventura is a film of its time. With hip pictures, without narration. My father once told me that it wasn't about being entertained. It almost sounded like a punishment to look at this Antonioni or that Luis-Bunuel. It had to be! Basically, we have nothing at all in common with the people of L'Avventura. Their lifestyle goes far beyond our wildest dreams here in Kreuzberg. L'Avventura is constructed through and through. More an idea than a film. The idea of a silent cry of despair banished to celluloid. We observe parasites whose money allows them to constantly distract themselves. Diversion from work and responsibility. Goal: To conceal one's own emptiness. L'Avventura plays in the moral wasteland. Such films no longer exist. Films that put the meaning of life into perspective. We no longer face the meaning of life. Instead, we decide on a certain "lifestyle".