Film has a rhythm, a speed, and, when you toy with or alter that rhythm, what have you got? Boring pans of the desert or landscapes? Is it art? Can dead space be art? Certainly, David Lean thought so and, more or less, tortured us putting it into practice. His Italian brother in the practice Michelangelo Antonioni certainly explored the idea as well, just without the extreme panoramas. Lean, however, seemed to be less interest in his characters, however. Space consumed him. Antonioni, for all his faults, had an interest in the inhabitants of his films, largely do to his muse Monica Vitti.

Antonioni scored his first international triumph in 1960 with L’Avventura, a film, along with the works of Federico Fellini would break the hold of the neorealist style that had gripped the Italian film industry for many years. Antonioni was unique among his fellow Italian film directors. The domineering theme of L’Avventura, and of the next three films was the barrenness of modern humans. He was fascinated by people’s attempts to assert themselves in the modern world, which Antonioni believed was futile. Wandering the Italian director’s world were similar creatures experiencing the same problems.

Antonioni’s films tended to be plotless. , their narrative vagueness almost being a mystery that the director almost dared the viewer to figure out.

His films were self-reflexive mediations. Long , lingering shots followed his characters until something about them was revealed. Antonioni manipulated time and space to put further stress on his characters already fragile psyches. As such, the physical world, that the characters had no control of, crashed down on the metaphysical one, rendering the character a shell.

But that shell began to encompass the director. Monica Vitti left to explore different avenues and Antonioni’s output became more sporadic as the 1960s became the 70s.