No matter acclaim––nay, outright-legendary standing––is foisted upon Michelangelo Antonioni usually comes from a small collection of movies produced within the Nineteen Sixties. Whereas I proceed awaiting simply desserts for Thriller of Oberwald and Past the Clouds, we will now cross off Il Grido, his 1957 characteristic that’s been restored by The Movie Basis, Cineteca di Bologna, and Compass Movie, and which is receiving a theatrical launch from Janus Movies beginning at Movie Discussion board on November 18 (earlier than an inevitable Criterion). Forward of this, there’s a brand new trailer during which Antonioni’s early triumph appears crisp as ever.
Right here’s the brand new synopsis: “Years before L’avventura, his international breakthrough, Michelangelo Antonioni crafted his first masterpiece with Il grido, a raw expression of anguish that remains one of Italian cinema’s great underappreciated gems. Bridging Antonioni’s early, neorealism-inspired work and his hallmark stories of existential rootlessness Il Grido centers on Aldo (Steve Cochran), a sugar-refinery worker in the Po Valley. When Irma (Alida Valli), his lover of seven years, learns that her estranged husband has died abroad, Aldo hopes ey can finally marry. These plans are ruined, however, when Irma declares she’s fallen in love with another man. Shocked and demoralized, Aldo leaves town with his daughter, Rosina (Mirna Girardi), and attempts to woo an old girlfriend (Betsy Blair), only to find himself rebuffed. As Aldo continues to drift through the Po’s small villages, his prospects dwindle and his connections with other women—including a gas-station owner (Dorian Gray) and a sex worker (Lyn Shaw)—fizzle out into alienation and despair. Strikingly composed and boldly using environment to convey character—like Antonioni’s later classics—Il Grido reveals a director in the process of discovering his artistic signature and applying it to this most personal of statements about the human condition.”
Discover preview and poster beneath:
