Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Year Released: 1961
Rating: 2.0
Navel-picking at its most complex - Antonioni's total disregard for "developing characters" or "plots" and persistent obsession with obscure symbols and abstract concepts are all at play here, with Marcello and Jeanne Moreau playing a married couple dissatisfied with each other, and the audience playing the part of the somnolent spectators. The word "intellectual" is tossed around a lot, perhaps out of admiration for the intellect, perhaps out of irony, because not an ounce of genuine intellectualism can be traced anywhere. I find interest in Antonioni's shots of "emptiness" - barren streets, uninhabited forests - but there needs to be more substance in there along with the amazing compositions (I bitched about this in Red Desert); the "flatness" seems less out of artistic necessity than basic laziness. Resnais, who I feel comfortable comparing Antonioni to, at least adds a poetic dimension to the text, and humor to the absurdness - this, on the other hand, is just absurd.
