Disappearing Other and Self

Everett 2022-03-24 09:03:01

2021.8.12 Film Archive Xiaoxitian

Antonioni precisely touches on the crisis of modernity faced by individuals, which is embodied in the state of dissociation, indifference, anxiety, fear, and powerlessness presented by individuals in the context of intimacy. Wanting to possess but not being satisfied, wanting to ask the truth about love but willing to be deceived, avoidance of communication, long silences, tempered passions, disgust for self-indulgence in sentimental emotions. These emotional experiences above lead to a disappearance in this film. When a person is bizarrely evaporated from society, the middle-class response to this is to continue to seek new "adventures", that is, derailment. This is exactly what Baudelaire said about "discovering eternity in an instant", a boring leisure life, God no longer exists, and can only rely on lust to drive the existence of life, and the object of lust is no longer a fixed and unique object, only the other full of uncertainty. So, for Sandro and Claudia, Anna's whereabouts are no longer important, what matters is their own whereabouts. Where should they go, in the process of searching for Anna, they themselves disappeared, including their love for Anna in the past, because they went mad because they searched endlessly for the truth and only found that "nothingness" is the real truth, Because the world is completely unknowable, the only thing we know is nothing.

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Extended Reading
  • Fredrick 2022-03-15 09:01:05

    "If you say I love you now, I will believe it."

  • Scottie 2022-03-23 09:02:48

    I know the "Modern Love Trilogy" has a high status in film history, and I know the skill is well done. But I just don't like it! Against the plot tradition, the story does not continue. The characters aren't that multi-faceted obnoxious, they're pure and downright obnoxious, every single one of them. Claudia feels like a shrewd person, every action can't find Into. However, the erotic scenes are super good, and Antonioni is really tyrannical and cold.

L'Avventura quotes

  • Claudia: It's absurd.

    Sandro: Good. All the better if it is absurd. It means we can't do anything about it. Understand?

  • Claudia: To think that you must have told Anna these same things--I don't know, how many times.

    Sandro: Let's say I did. I was as earnest with her as I am now with you.