Sightlines · reception
How L'Avventura was received
1960 · Michelangelo Antonioni · L'Avventura on Sightlines
The arc
Booed and jeered at its 1960 Cannes premiere — Monica Vitti reportedly left in tears — yet it won the Jury Prize after critics rallied to its defense, and just two years later Sight & Sound's 1962 poll ranked it the second greatest film ever made, behind only Citizen Kane. Few films have gone from scandal to canon that fast.
What’s debated
It's the original 'is it boring or is it hypnotic?' film — the eternal test case in the slow-cinema wars, where 'nothing happens' is either the flaw or the whole point.
Its footprint
Its central move — a disappearance the film gradually stops caring about — became one of cinema's most referenced ideas, echoing through everything from Picnic at Hanging Rock to modern mystery-that-refuses-to-resolve films, and it made Monica Vitti an icon of chic alienation.
Where it stands
A permanent Sight & Sound fixture and art-house rite of passage — the 'you must have seen this' entry point to Antonioni that every serious watchlist eventually collides with.
Did you know? The Cannes booing was so intense that a group of critics and filmmakers signed a public statement calling it the most important film shown at the festival — it took the Jury Prize anyway, awarded 'for its remarkable contribution to the search for a new cinematic language.'