MovieChat Forums > L'avventura (1961) Discussion > A Little Homage to Hitchcock's Vertigo?

A Little Homage to Hitchcock's Vertigo?

posted 16 years ago by Vertigomovie
12 replies | jump to latest

I like L'avventura because it's so romantic. Almost a romantic thriller.

As much as Mr. Antonioni professed to be an Auteur, there was a little homage to Mr. Hitchcock's Vertigo (San Juan Bautista Mission/Church tower/bell): the scene where Claudia and Sandro are on top of the church roof with the church bells. This scene even opens with a nun leading them to on top the church roof.

And did you see the dress that Claudia wore on that church scene too? It resembles to Vertigo's Madeleine dress at San Juan Bautista Mission.

Vertigo was produced in 1958.
L'avventura was produced in 1960.

I am certain that L'avventura was partly inspired by Vertigo!

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Vertigomovie 16 years ago

> Are you suggesting that a director is less of an Auteur if he includes a
> homage like that in his films?

No. It's just that in listening to Mr. Antonioni's comments, he feels that commercial films like Vertigo (romantic thriller) and other commercial films are somehow inferior to his auteur films (clean, pure & not infected by commercialism)....

So it's very interesting that he would pay a little homage to a commercial film like Vertigo.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] Vertigomovie 16 years ago

No. Mr. Antonioni's comment applies to the whole general commercial films.
There is no evidence that Mr. Antonioni ever specifically mentioned "Vertigo".

[–] BwlBoy 16 years ago

I didn't see any Hitchcock in this film. I thought there may have been some Bergman about the early scenes as the island they landed on had a touch of Faro about it. This couldn't have been the case though as I found out after that Bergman did not film on Faro until 1960 when he made Through a Glass Darkly. There is a hint of a Bunuel influence and certainly Fellini in the film in my view but of course open to debate.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] oopyman 16 years ago

i dont see how one could walk away from l'avventura and think that it was the least bit romantic

[–] NewID 13 years ago

good point, I missed that one but felt same when she was trying the wig.

[–] molypocho 13 years ago

I got the same feeling. The use of wigs too! Or maybe it is not a wig in Vertigo, I don't recall. Anyways, that whole replacing one girl with the other thing. I got to wondering how much Mulholland Drive is a homage to Vertigo, or a homage to this, or both? I need to watch Vertigo again. It always gives me a sea-sick feeling, I suppose a feeling akin to VERTIGO!!!! Never like it much though.

For me, the film's transformation, from foreboding mystery to a deeply felt exploration of the human condition, was seamless. Caught me off-guard. So many films fail at similar endeavors. By the end I truly tossed and turned in the chaos of Claudia's psyche.

My rating: 10

Lea Massari, the camera exploring each recess and cliff, Lea Massari, the formidable wake of the boat, Lea Massari: Beautiful, beautiful, beau-ti-ful!

New edit: We feel alienated by the rich people's meaningless lives in the same way we feel alienated by the island's and Anna's beauty, but as the film develops, after Anna's disappearance, we suddenly see Claudia. Up until this point, her existence seemed superfluous. She's less striking, less imposing than Anna, maybe even less beautiful, but concurrently, perhaps because her beauty does not astound us, we find her comforting. We can identify with this woman.

[–] Tchoutoye 13 years ago

I got the same impression: Vertigo, but with all the suspense drained out.

[–] ruedevariance 12 years ago

The scene concerns Claudia's feeling that she is going to be trapped in a marriage where love died too soon: she and Sandro are separated by the bell-ropes which signify entanglement; just as the bells sound a warning, one that is echoed across Sicily where loveless marriages, in the Antonioni scheme of things are normal (the chemist and his wife from Viterbo with a sour marriage after only 3 months), where men prey on women for their lust, and women prey on men for their money. Hard to know who is more cynical, Hitchcock or Antonioni. The latter's films look even worse than they did when I saw them in the 1970s, the pop music of 1960 is beyond redemption; the script is a disaster, the relentless need Antonioni had to make films about the nothing at the core of life, so tedious in his other films, is taken to its meaningless zenith/nadir here: the rock from which Anna disappeared/deserted, matched by the mountain in the last shot as Claudia, moments after discovering Sandro with another woman, rests her head on his head as if he were a small boy being comforted by his mum. Quite literally, a hopeless film. And to think this vacuous rubbish was behind Citizen Kane as the secone best film ever made in the Sight and Sound list, I think in 1962!

[–] udippel 10 years ago

Haha. I am always thinking of Tristana when I see them playing with the bells, and hearing the bells. Though then the homage would be one of Buñuel to Antonioni.

I actually see a lot of similarities between the two, by the way. Though I couldn't find much about this online, and Buñuels 'Dernier Souffle' is also silent on Antonioni.