L'Avventura by Antonioni was a complete bore to me. Before I get flamed by everyone on this message board, let me explain why...It certainly wasn't the cinematagraphy; that was absolutely the best part of it. Nearly every frame had a picturesque quality to it. Black and White films don't get much better looking than this. I think what left me so  cold while watching this film was the "language" Antonioni invented for portraying his new ideas for film. Each shot was so artificially staged: Characters stood in doorways within doorways, or stood in front of windows that looked out into nothing, saying nothing. I've seen this movie 4 times now, the last being about 2 weeks ago, and on that occasion, I decided to listen to the alternate commentary track by a film historian just to see what I was missing from my interpretation of it. This film buff, who's name escapes me, just gushed all over it. Even with the meaning of all the sets, locations, backgrounds, body-lanquage,   and non-existant dialogue explained to me, I still couldn't keep from yawning at all the effort and pains Antonioni took to remind us that these were "un-emotional" and "insecure" privledged people of the upper classes. Other than Monica Vitti's quiet, underplayed role, there wasn't anyone with a drop of sincerity or passion in them. I'm not sure if it was exactly the subject matter or the concentration required to decode the whole thing, but by the end, I was left feeling more than a little bored and relieved to see it finally end. I should mention that I've seen several other Antonioni films and really enjoyed them! Blowup was beautifully shot and intriguing to ponder with an extremely intense final third of the movie. Red Desert had some incredibly haunting images, but wasn't as interesting as Blowup. Has anyone else noticed these points about L'Avventurra or am I being dense? This is only my opinion, and should not prevent anyone from enjoying it if that is what they like. I just wanted to express my own reaction to this "masterpiece".