SUBJECTS

Fathers and daughters -- Italy -- Drama, Man-woman relationships -- Italy -- Drama, Mistresses -- Italy -- Drama, Runaway husbands -- Italy -- Drama

Il grido

(The Cry)

Imported Print

featuring

Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, Betsy Blair, Gabriella Pallotti,

We are more familiar with Antonioni’s spaces of bourgeois existence, but in this wonderful early work, he returns to “the landscape I remember from my childhood,” the desolate vistas of the Po Valley, to film a study of a man who, deserted by his mistress, sets out with his little daughter in search of peace of mind and a new life. However, the image of his lover and the failure of their union never leave him. Here is the rare truly empathetic male character in Antonioni’s oeuvre. The film’s rhythm and shot duration make Il grido one long, drawn-out cry. Empty, silent spaces are loaded with meaning; it is the tension of that which is between, of estrangement, the inability to connect or find resolution. It has the look of neorealism, but Il grido’s protagonist and its landscape of indifference fit into the chain leading up to Red Desert and, finally, The Passenger.

Judy Bloch
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Michelangelo Antonioni
  • Elio Bartolini
  • Ennio De Concini
Based On
  • a story by Antonioni

Cinematographer
  • Gianni Di Venanzo
Language
  • Italian
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 35mm
  • 107 mins
Source
  • Cinecittà
Permission
  • Compass Film
CINEFILES

CineFiles is an online database of BAMPFA's extensive collection of documentation covering world cinema, past and present.

View Il grido documents  

Michelangelo Antonioni: interiores burgueses con figura (program), Institut Valencià de l'Audiovisual i de Cinematografia Ricardo Muñoz Suay, Domènec Font, 2010

The cry (program note), Film Society of Lincoln Center, 2002

Michelangelo Antonioni: modernist master (press release), San Francisco Film Society, 1999

Modernist master: Michelangelo Antonioni (program note), Cinematheque Ontario/a division of Toronto International Film Festival Group, James Quandt, 1993

Il grido (program note), Film Society of Lincoln Center, 1992

Il grido (distributor materials), Kino International Corporation, 1992

'Dear Antonioni...' : the complete works of Michelangelo Antonioni (program note), Film Society of Lincoln Center, Kathleen Murphy, 1992

Le cri (program note), Cinémathèque Française, 1981

Il grido (program note), Exceptional films at Art Musem. Program notes. Philadelphia, 1964

Il grido (review), Filmfacts, 1963

Displaying 10 of 14 publicly available documents.


View all Il grido documentation on CineFiles.