Il grido

Brilliant...!

It was about the replacement of old values for materialistic ones, a dark tale of lost love only to be filled by meaningless flings in search of fulfillment. I strongly recommend if you're a fan of Bergman, Tarr, Tarkovsky. It has parallels with Schubert's Winterreise song cycle. Antonioni was the ultimate poet of misery and alienation and this is a great film.

Watch this film and you'll understand why Antonioni is considered a master of cinema. Many of the shots are simply breathtaking, and the narrative has a fascinating symmetry. What seemed to me at first like a simple story with predictable components gathered weighty momentum as the film went on.

The protagonist is a man of few words, but we learn everything through his actions. I've never before seen a plan literally scattered to the wind in the way he does in the second half of the film. Dramatic gestures like that one could appear foolish, but are so fraught with frustration and desperation that one can't help but sympathize with him.

The supporting characters are wonderful too--especially the daughter and Virginia, the gas station owner. In short, the film is a must-watch.

Antonioni was exploring the malaise of modern life well before L'AVVENTURA made him into an international sensation; personally I prefer this masterpiece more than any of his subsequent films, save L'ECLISSE, because it still has the healthy neo-realist flavor of a rural working-class setting (though stunningly invaded by the industrial sounds and imagery that would later take over the screen in RED DESERT), which goes to show that alienation isn't just exclusive to the rich. Steve Cochrane plays a refinery worker who splits with his lover (Alida Valli) and shacks up with a series of working class lovers (Betsy Blair, Dorian Gray, Lynn Shaw, all excellent), only to gradually realize that he can only live as he had before, a way of life which has no longer become sustainable. The film is shot beautifully, capturing a fog-covered landscape rich in metaphorical meaning. This film, for me, does an exceptional job of validating Antonioni's reputation in depicting the impossibility of people's ability to achieve lasting happiness in the modern world, and their poignant struggle to make do and carry on the best way they know how.