Overview
Michelangelo Antonioni’s first collaboration with poet Tonino Guerra extended his early experiments with narrative: the sudden disappearance of a diplomat’s daughter while holidaying with friends in the Aeolian Islands is less the start of a mystery than of a cool dissection of the relationship that develops between her lover and her best friend as they search for her. Pace, positioning and perspective are all-important in this masterpiece of modern alienation; the first chapter in a loose trilogy that also includes La Notte and L'eclisse.
Ranked joint 72nd in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll.
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