The viewer initially ties himself to the character of Lea Massari, but the main character is really Monica Vitti's, from whose eyes the viewer eventually watches everything and every event. The situation establishes a connection (empathy) and afterwards a Catharsis (= unhappiness and fear through a work of art containing elements of unhappiness and fear) purification. Michelangelo Antonioni thus created, in 1960, a new film language based on what the critic Jose LIno Grunewald called ¨the peeling of unreality.¨ The Adventure is a work of art that keeps its promises from the beginning to the end. The word Adventure here means anything but mystery-adventure-tension-crime, excitement, thrill or speedy action. The music score by Giovanni Fusco rather reinforces an expectation of ¨still-life dead tempos,¨and the audience is never confronted with, so to say, a proper ¨adventure.¨
Review of L'Avventura
