L’Avventura

I’m still debating whether or not to award the Italian version of our coveted “Gerry Award” to this film. Mostly it’s because I’m not sure whether to call it the Geraldo or the Guido. It’s also because Lee liked it better than I did, and I don’t know if she has a veto. We give it out to the most boring, pointless, and artsy-fartsy movies of all time, and in my book, this is one. It is named after Gus Van Sant‘s execrable Gerry, which, like this one, most critics adored.

Michelangelo Antonioni makes films about alienated, pointless people suffering from existential despair. This is not my cup of tea, but he made it work for me once, in Blow-Up, which I thought was brilliant. Of his other films I’ve only seen two, Zabriskie Point and Red Desert, and thought both of them pointless and dull … which seems to be exactly what Signore M. intended. Well, fine, but not for me. And there’s really no point in discussing the plot, which barely exists, so what else is there? Better than Sominex if you are in need of sleep, though. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.