I vinti

These three moral tales ostensibly on the subject of the dehumanized behavior of postwar youth do little to provide an explanation for it. Rather, the segments are given the stamp of Antonioni: aimlessness is reflected in landscape (desolate fields, deserted streets, abandoned country homes) as much as action. In one story, a French boy is killed by his pals when the wad of fake money he flashes is taken for real; in another, an eccentric British poet murders so that he can “discover” the body and break the story in the press. It’s a bit like Hitchcock without the hitch; with Antonioni, the play is definitely not the thing. Set and filmed in three countries—France, Italy, and England—this relatively innocuous film was thrice censored: France and Britain banned their respective chapters and the Italian sequence was altered before shooting even began.