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Story of a Love Affair (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1950)
Antonioni's feature debut is interesting in all kinds of ways which have nothing to do with the actual film. To tell you the truth, I find the best thing about the flick to be the gonzo jazz score which almost sounds like something from a Z-grade Ed Wood flick. I honestly mean that as a compliment to the avant-garde score. Otherwise, this film is a revelation to me. Antonioni is considered the Master of Silence and what's unsaid in a film, yet this film is non-stop dialogue, even though much of it is repetitive and unnecessary. He obviously learned his lesson and gradually adopted his trademark enigmatic (and extremely-quiet) style subsequently. This film is about a rich husband trying to find out if his incredibly-sexy-and-younger wife is actually cheating on him. Well, obviously she is, so there's a subplot about how the lovers might use the success of an earlier murder they committed to get rid of the husband. The flaw is that the wife and her lover spend most of the movie sashaying around whether they're up to it and if it will help them out. Meanwhile, the husband's p.i.s keep investigating the wife. It actually has an ironic ending, but I never realized before how much this flick could make me appreciate Antonioni's later enigmatic silence.
Antonioni's feature debut is interesting in all kinds of ways which have nothing to do with the actual film. To tell you the truth, I find the best thing about the flick to be the gonzo jazz score which almost sounds like something from a Z-grade Ed Wood flick. I honestly mean that as a compliment to the avant-garde score. Otherwise, this film is a revelation to me. Antonioni is considered the Master of Silence and what's unsaid in a film, yet this film is non-stop dialogue, even though much of it is repetitive and unnecessary. He obviously learned his lesson and gradually adopted his trademark enigmatic (and extremely-quiet) style subsequently. This film is about a rich husband trying to find out if his incredibly-sexy-and-younger wife is actually cheating on him. Well, obviously she is, so there's a subplot about how the lovers might use the success of an earlier murder they committed to get rid of the husband. The flaw is that the wife and her lover spend most of the movie sashaying around whether they're up to it and if it will help them out. Meanwhile, the husband's p.i.s keep investigating the wife. It actually has an ironic ending, but I never realized before how much this flick could make me appreciate Antonioni's later enigmatic silence.