L’Avventura

L’Avventura (1960) - dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

So it has come to this. After years of staring at this film on my shelf I finally was brave enough to enter the world that is Antonioni’s L’Avventura. I had long put this film off as for me this came to represent the highest echelon of arthouse cinema. It’s controversial history and divisive interpretations adding more to my curiosity. So I took the plunge.

The film concerns a wealthy trio of friends. Claudia, her close friend Anne and Anne’s partner Sandro. After embarking on a yachting vacation around the islands of Amalfi the group finds that Anne has disappeared. Did she run away? Murder? Suicide? We can never know, for what starts as tumultuous search for her by Claudia and Sandro slowly descends into the pair beginning a passionate affair. Anne becomes but a ghost that haunts over the characters as carnal pleasure takes precedent.

Were this a conventional film, my revealing that Anne is never found would be an aberration to the plot. But this film is not so simple.

L’Avventura is for me the proverbial foil to Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. Italian, characters searching for something lost within themselves, the films diverge at the lifestyles they display. For Fellini, the glitz and glamour of celebrity from an average man looking in, for Antonioni a world of the decadent rich. However it is the most surreal existence, and an impermeable sense of ennui permeates throughout the film. Wherein acting upon pleasure only serves to distract one from the utter meaningless of their being. Characters openly flirt with strangers, the parties seem sparse and lifeless, for in this world they are all essentially empty. As Roger Ebert described it, a melancholy moral desert.

I delve further. For years popular sentiment heralds how money buys you happiness, that society pursues wealth in the interest of affording happiness. However this film serves as a rejection of this. Here we see those who have it all, money, beauty and social power. However it only serves to further embolden the uselessness of their existence, in the end submitting themselves to basic pleasures to find meaning. 

I felt as though I were in a fugue state for much of the film. For at the end of the day, nothing really happens, at all. The signature plot motivator, being Anne’s disappearance, simple recedes into the gorgeous black and white cinematography. This initial reaction was shared by many during its initial run, with some jokingly referring to “Antoniennui”. I still have my reservations having now watched it, but I cannot deny its visual grandeur, and the simply radiant performance by star Monica Vitti. Don’t put this film off for as many years I did. 8.5/10

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Amour

Amour (2012) - dir. Michael Haneke

Oh this hits close to home. Having just recently experienced the death of a loved one, Michael Haneke’s Amour served as but a painful reminder. A film that I can relate with more than many can claim to. 

Amour showcases a poignantly realistic descent to death. How debilitation from illness and hardship conspire to the most heartbreaking of experiences for a family and lover. Georges and Anne, married and retired music teachers in their twilight years, have dedicated their lives to the art of music. So goes the Bard, “If music be the food of love, play on”. In a particularly memorable scene, we see these two worlds together, as Anne and Georges bear witness to a former pupil performing Schubert, their partnership and their tutelage climaxing in a beautiful piece for the ages. That this would be, in a sense, their swan song, marks the somber tone that Amour exudes. 

From the highest of highs, comes the inevitable decline. Anne suffers from a stroke. Anne simply goes silent, as though paused in time. Georges grasps her, forming one of the most beautiful stills in cinema (see above). It is the beginning of the end, and this image the last vestige of the beauty that was partnership. He wishes to hold the memory of their love for the last time.

Having experience firsthand my father’s decline in health until his passing, the weight carried by Georges I know too well. To say this film had me hanging to every interaction between Georges and Anne, their conversations, touches and fleeting glances, is an understatement. I’ve been there. What is also familiar is the great pain as the situation deteriorates, and the complications, worries and frustration that entails. Georges in a heat of anger slaps a seemingly belligerent Anne, for which it is abundantly clear that they have passed the point of no return. Their past relationship is gone, and can never be reattained.  

Amour means far more to me than words can describe. That a film can transcend the screen and reach into my life is the mark of something truly special. The Oscars race may seem locked up at this point, but this film will continue on as one of the greats from 2012. 9/10

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84 Charing Cross Road

84 Charing Cross Road (1987) - dir. David Hugh Jones

Based upon the highly popular novel and true story by Helene Hanff, the film 84 Charing Cross Road details the humorous relationship by correspondence between author Hanff and Frank Doel, a rare books buyer from London. What I love the most about this warm and adorable film is it’s intimate portrayal of mutual interest over long distances, this being the world of literature and reading.

Helene Hanff is a middle aged script writer in post war New York. The economy is booming and the future is bright, however Helene is more preoccupied with the past. For Helene is in love with the world of English literature, from Elizabethan poetry, to Chaucer, Stevenson, Hazlitt and many other seminal figures. With America preoccupied with tomorrow, there is little space for the past. This is where she forms a relationship by letter with Frank Doel of Mark’s & Co, a man whose very profession is with the procurement of works of old. 

Beyond the story I simply adored these characters who passionately describe their love for books and reading. When Helene receives her first book from Frank, it is like Carter uncovering Tutankhamen’s tomb. “The Stevenson is so fine it embarrasses my orange crate bookshelves. I’m afraid to handle such soft vellum and heavy cream-colored pages…I never knew a book could be such a joy to the touch.” This is a movie any English teacher would love, which is fitting as I had two in my family! 

If you’re looking for something light, I recommend this movie with all of my being! Especially those of you (and I know there’s a lot of ya!) who too know the joy of reading. 8.5/10

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Purple Noon

Purple Noon (1960) - dir. Réné Clement

Pleasure, ecstasy, euphoria…these are emotions we all but yearn for. In Réné Clement’s Purple Noon we are shown a world that is a feast for the eyes, the ultimate playground for the senses. The sun-baked Mediterranean has never looked so inviting. From decadent hotels, to the azure coasts of the most delicious colors and palettes, this is the world for the rich and fortunate, and one in which we all feel the same emotion in the end, desire.

Now we step into the shoes of Tom Ripley, played by the magnetic Alain Delon. Paid to bring a wealthy businessman’s playboy son Philippe Greenleaf back to San Francisco to run the family company, what instead comes to pass is exactly what we the audience experience, desire. Tom desires Philippe’s life of wealth and carefree living, he desires his radiant girlfriend Marge, in fact Tom desires Philippe. As Geoffrey O’Brien noted, by the end of the film we not only understand Tom Ripley, we want what he wants.

What transpire is a sinister plot of murder and identity theft, as Tom acts to grasp the life he covets. A process which uncover’s a meticulous, intelligent and ultimately psychopathic mind, truly one of cinema’s most complex minds. The murder of Philippe belies a truly cold and calculating killer, lulling his victim into a false sense of security before the coup de grâce. Yet his love and gentle caresses of Marge show a sincere and sympathetic character. Further to this point the object of Tom’s (and our) desire Philippe is portrayed as equally, if not more so, sadistic. With his flippant appreciation Marge’s adoration, utter cruelty towards Tom’s fawning, Philippe is one which I’m sure we would all strike down should the opportunity arise. 

What did cause me some consternation was film’s ending, which for me was inconsistent not only with the source material, but also with the general tone of the film to that point. Perhaps it was the culture of the time, or a general morality play on what should be truly wicked character. This small criticism aside, I highly recommend this true work of art and cinema. 9/10

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