Idling through the net — as one does — I just chanced on this photo of Monica Vitti. A blast from the past indeed, as I had a copy of that very shot on my wall as a student for a couple of years.
I fairly recently saw L’Avventura again after a gap of many, many years. I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t really expecting the film to stand up after four decades, and predicted that it would seem too mannered and pretentious. But I was bowled over anew: bleak but stunning still. And Monica Vitti so beautiful and touching …
While I couldn’t possibly condone downloading it, I notice that — in the absence of a DVD for the UK — a torrent of L’Avventura is indexed at mininova.org. [Revised: The photo now links to a somewhat larger version. For a few more photos, search this blog for “Monica Vitti”! ]
You can buy a PAL version from the amazon.fr site:
http://tinyurl.com/3bwf7q
It’s sure (!) to have French sub-titles, and perhaps English one’s as well.