L'Avventura; Le Amíche

It's an interesting exercise--even for non-sadomasochists--to watch Michelangelo Antonioni's narrative-driven 1955 Le Amíche followed by his much ballyhooed narrative-as-afterthought 1960 classic L'Avventura. In the former, also known as The Girlfriends, a beautiful young woman's (Eleonora Rossi Drago) suicide attempt sets in motion a series of jockeying-for-romantic-power encounters between a group of superficial friends. A surprisingly insightful look at the nature of adult relationships, Le Amíche--Antonioni's first highly regarded effort--not only holds up well some 45-plus years later (although extra-less, the DVD is reasonably sharp looking), it is in some ways superior to (and is certainly more entertaining than) the Italian auteur's Cannes film festival award winning reputed masterpiece L'Avventura, in which a group of well-off socialites mooring their boat at a small island off Sicily lose one of their party--an enigmatic young woman named Anna (Lea Massari). As all search high and low over every inch of the island, Anna's boyfriend Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti) takes an increasing interest in her best friend, Claudia (Monica Vitti). While the question of what happened to Anna hangs over the entire film, Antonioni's stroke of genius is to leave it unanswered. As the others head for the mainland to resume their lives, Claudia and Sandro continue to make an attempt to find the missing woman--who's been reportedly sighted in several Italian cities--while moving inexorably into an affair of their own. A visually complex film, full of breathtaking black and white scenic photography, much of L'Avventura's narrative resides purely in the image (making it difficult for all but diehard film buffs and impressionable film students to appreciate). Still, any cinema collection worth its nitrate will want to snap up Criterion's lavish double disc edition, which--in addition to a cleaned up image and crisp sound--features interesting (if not always convincing) commentary from film historian Gene Youngblood, an uncharacteristically fawning hour-long National Film Board of Canada documentary--Antonioni: Documents and Testimonials, and a selection of Antonioni's writings read by Jack Nicholson. Le Amíche is recommended, while L'Avventura--for its place in cinematic history, if not for its intrinsic worth (of any decade of the past half century, I predict that films from the 60s will fare the worst under sober reassessment)--is highly recommended. (R. Pitman)[Blu-ray/DVD Review—Nov. 18, 2014—Criterion, 143 min., in Italian w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: 2 discs, $29.95; Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1960's L'avventura boasts an excellent transfer and an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition. Extras include audio commentary by film historian Gene Youngblood, Gianfranco Mingozzi's 1966 featurette “Antonioni: Documents and Testimonials” on filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni (58 min.), French filmmaker Olivier Assayas's three-part analysis of the film (27 min.), writings by Antonioni read by actor Jack Nicholson, plus Nicholson's recollections of the director (23 min.), a trailer, and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Antonioni's statements after the film's Cannes Film Festival premiere, and an open letter distributed at the festival. Bottom line: Antonioni's highly influential classic makes a welcome Blu-ray debut.][Blu-ray/DVD Review—June 14, 2016—Criterion, 104 min., in Italian w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1955's Le Amiche sports an excellent transfer and an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include interviews with scholars David Forgacs and Karen Pinkus on the film's themes (28 min.) and with Eugenia Paulicelli on fashion in director Michelangelo Antonioni's work (23 min.), and an essay by film scholar Tony Pipolo. Bottom line: a characteristically superb Criterion high-def release of Antonioni's early classic.]