(1961, b/w; The Adventure, Italian) After her father speaks frankly to Anna (Lea Massari), an ambivalent young woman of wealth and privilege, cautioning her that her boyfriend (several years older) is not likely to marry her, she departs with her closest friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), expecting to be away for four or five days in the Aeolian Islands (the Lipari Islands off the north coast of Sicily).

Saying one thing and doing another, Anna leaves Claudia in the street while she's alone with Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti) in his bedroom, whom she also disappoints. The three of them join others of the haute monde - Lady Patrizia, Raimondo, old Corrado with his young Guilia (unmarried and living together), and Mario - on a vessel motoring toward the isle of Basiluzzo. After jumping into the water from the boat, Anna lies about seeing a shark.

On the rocky isolation of volcanic extrusion, Guilia complains of Corrado's belittling her; Anna quarrels with Sandro, telling him she wants to be alone without losing him. Soon after she disappears; everyone searches for her without success.

Corrado, Sandro, and Claudia remain on the isle while the others go for help. Taking shelter inside a small dwelling as the weather turns wet, the three are surprised when the old caretaker shows up, having just arrived from another island; but he has not seen the girl. Claudia, feeling guilty for what's happened, blames Sandro for not paying enough attention to Anna.

The police arrive with a boat and helicopter; Anna's father shows up in his yacht. Away from everyone else, Sandro embraces Claudia, kissing her.

This mystery from director Michelangelo Antonioni (co-writer with Elio Bartolini and Tonino Guerra) won the Special Jury Award at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival with its "different cinematic language" of psychology and morality; a formerly controversial film (deemed obscene by many) now appears too long and languid.

Was Anna murdered? Did she accidentally slip and fall from a cliff into the sea? (While hunting about, Claudia saw how easily the rocks could give way.) Did she commit suicide? (When Claudia finds a Bible among the items in Anna's suitcase, the girl's father concludes she couldn't have.) Was she abducted by smugglers? (Sandro is present when the police interrogate four fishermen.)

Given only the events and characters as presented - abrupt transitions left me often wondering as to the new setting - we're abandoned to piecing together the clues and drawing our own conclusions.

On the third day since their meeting, returning to Milazzo, Sicily, and boarding a train while the others have gone on to the Montaldos, Claudia resists Sandro's entreaties to stay with him ("Let me be"). Looking for the newspaper reporter who wrote an article on people claiming they'd seen Anna since her disappearance, Sandro finds him in a city among a crowd attracted to author Gloria Perkins, a 19-year-old sensation.

At the princess's villa, Claudia, who has rejoined Anna's friends, witnesses Guilia's suddenly being enraptured by 17-year-old Prince Goffredo, who wants to paint her nude portrait. Once again in the company of Sandro, who interviews a pharmacist and his wife about their having seen Anna (though each recalls contradictory details), Claudia finally succumbs, responding passionately; they pursue the clues of Anna's whereabouts along the eastern coast and south to an empty hotel in Noto.

Later and elsewhere, outside in the street while waiting for Sandro, who has gone indoors, Claudia becomes the focus of every man's stare, arousing doubts and self-reproach about her feelings for Anna's former inamorato. Atop a church, Sandro proposes marriage; however, he also behaves maliciously, intentionally tipping over a young man's ink bottle, spoiling a drawing.

With Patrizia and her husband Ettore, who have Gloria as a guest, Claudia expresses to the hostess her fear that Anna may be alive.

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