| Worthy but dated |
|
| written by SBarnett |
August 6, 2006 - 8:52 AM PDT |
| The movement in this film is generated by the characters' psychology, not by events. There is basically no story. This isn't a problem, because the acting is so good, and Antonioni's long, deliberate shots are so telling, that you find yourself hooked. It's a film of many memorable scenes, like those in the stock exchange and characters walking alone in empty streets, dwarfed by sterile modern apartment blocks. It's also largely a film of Monica Vitti. Her face is amazingly changeable, her body language so eloquent. One unforgettable scene has her stepping out of a cab and gesturing to someone honking their horn for her to hurry--an arch of the eyes, a purse of the lips, a little pressing gesture of the hands--so Roman, and so Vitti. Like Jack Nicholson says in the audio commentary to The Passenger, "Antonioni has an eye for beautiful women." And more than an eye--a mind. By the end of the film, you feel her frustration and boredom and loneliness and yearning almost physically, you want her to burst out, run away. That said, enough of the film feels dated now--the scene where Vitti is "playing Negroes," the urban alienation, the ending--to make this less than Antonioni's best. If you've never seen an Antonioni film, watch L'Avventura instead. |
|
|
Your cart
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.