Apparently, when this premiered at Cannes there was booing and laughing in equal measure. I'm not sure either response is warranted, but the film is a bit confounding. The fact that it's about 2 hours and 20 minutes long doesn't help much, as "gripping" is not an adjective that springs to mind as you're watching. It looks like it might be, for a time there, because there's a central mystery that, in another film, would make for a possibly satisfying whodunnit. The setup is a bored rich daughter, Anna,
goes against her father's wishes to go on a cruise with her architect boyfriend (Sandro, who seems rather older than her), bringing along her friend Claudia (the iconic Monica Vitti).
The catch is that Anna doesn't seem all that enthused about the trip. She has been separated from Sandro for a while as he works on a job and has decided she rather likes being alone. However Anna is very changeable, and is more than willing to leap into bed with Sandro (while Claudia waits outside in the street).
In general, Anna is a bit of a piece of work - when the (surprisingly small) boat that is carrying our party of rich folk to volcanic islands off Sicily arrives within striking distance of one, she jumps off with no warning, and later causes a panic by claiming to have spotted a shark, something she reveals later to Claudia was a fabrication. "High maintenance" indeed. And then it is Anna who sets the real film in motion by wandering off on the island and vanishing. They realize she's gone when they're ready to depart and comb the (small-and-easily-combed) island (which is covered with sharp-looking volcanic rocks and in general looks less than idyllic, although the views are fairly special), with no result. Occasionally, they think they hear a boat. There are very dangerous gullies and sea caves that could easily conceal a body.
Some of them stay the night in a primitive hut that is the only structure on the island, only to have the current inhabitant arrive in the night. So, another movie would have all of this become more-and-more sinister and perhaps turn into a folk-horror scenario. But no, that is not the film Antonioni has in mind. Instead, we leave the island and Anna is steadily forgotten (and never seen again). Sandro has become infatuated with Claudia, and after initial revulsion, she (fairly rapidly) capitulates, and if anything, becomes more infatuated with him. They move about the countryside half-heartedly following up reports of sightings of Anna (reported to a newspaper that published an account of the disappearance), and we learn that Sandro's job is no longer fulfilling, although very profitable, because he just makes estimates for rich clients rather than designing beautiful things. And we watch him pettily sabotage a young artist's architectural sketch for no apparent reason. There are other characters as well: Patrizia, a rich woman on the cruise who appears even more blase than the rest of them (albeit content). She is married to Ettore, who is Sandro's current employer, and not on the trip (although we visit them at their huge house later). She has a younger male hanger-on, Raimondo, who is constantly pawing at her to her amused detachment,
and who is a caricature of the obnoxious idle rich (at one point they find an ancient vase on the island and he just drops it and it shatters). Then there's the middle-aged, balding Corrado (Uncle Junior!) who seems to have some sense about him (he stays with Claudia and Sandro on the island the first night) but who is constantly belittling to his female companion (who could be his daughter but seems to be his lover), Giulia, who later punishes him by allowing herself to be seduced by a randy 17-year-old "artist". Not really a likable character in the bunch. And the movie ends with Claudia, who has spent a romantic day with Sandro, and drops off having agreed to marry him, wakes up in the night to find him gone, and searching the hotel they're staying in, finds him canoodling with a woman we've seen earlier and we know to be an expensive prostitute. Distraught, she runs off out of the hotel, to be followed by Sandro, who finds her on the hotel terrace and, rather than approach her, goes off and sits on a bench where he cries, and she is again drawn to him. The end.
So what's it about? The impossibility of connection? The essential shallowness of the rich? How any one of us could disappear and life will just go on? How love is endlessly fleeting? How Italian men are just insatiable hound dogs?
Is it any wonder someone coined the term "Antoniennui"? I can't say I enjoyed it as I have some of the classics in our collection, or even some of the smaller films, like Il Posto. But I did like the scenes on the island, at least. Although I'm sure Claudia got tired of the wind...
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