Directed by MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI

Thus I have rid myself of much unnecessary technical baggage, eliminating all the
logical narrative transitions, all those connective links between sequences where one
sequence served as a springboard for the one that followed.

The reason I did this was because it seemed to me--and of this I am firmly con-
vinced--that cinema today should be tied to the truth rather than logic. . . . The
rhythm of life is not made up of one steady beat; it is, instead, a rhythm that is
sometimes fast, sometimes slow; it remains motionless for a while, then at the next
moment it starts spinning around. There are times when it appears almost static,
there are other times when it moves with tremendous speed. . . . I think that
through these pauses, through this attempt to adhere to a definite reality--spiritual,
internal, and even moral--there springs forth what today is more and more coming to
be known as modern cinema, that is, a cinema which is not so much concerned with
externals as it is with those forces that move us to act in a certain way and not in
another. Because the important thing is this: that our acts, our gestures, our words
are nothing more than the consequences of our own personal situation in relation to
the world around us.

Michelangelo Antonioni, from "A Talk with Michelangelo Antonioni on His Work."
L'Avventura, a film by Michelangelo Antonioni, from the filmscript by
Michelangelo Antonioni, with Elio Bartolini and Tonino Guerra.
George Amberg, Consulting Ed., New York, 1969.