Le Amiche

“Antonioni’s quietly audacious attempt to convey the inner workings of modern life... What makes this drama mysteriously original is the details: the architectural contours of the film’s myriad locations seem to determine the action of the people who traverse them, and such visual creations as portraits, reflections, sketches, and eye-catching clothing have more reality than the empty, miserable characters to whom they lend identities.”

“A WELCOME RESTORATION...A LOST POSTWAR MASTERPIECE and showcase for Antonioni’s novelistic camera, as well as his appetite for alienation.”

“A masterpiece of understatement, restraint, economy of style and characterization.”

“ONE OF ANTONIONI’S GREATEST FILMS! Diverse plot strands, character psychology, and a masterful control of the camera are perfectly fused. With two bravura set pieces — a picnic by the sea that foreshadows L’Avventura and a troubled tea party — Antonioni’s intensity and grip, and his vivid portrayal of feminine anxiety in particular, make for a film that has barely dated at all.”

“Widely agreed to be its director’s first truly outstanding achievement... The style of the movie — unhurried shots which, by camera movement, shift our angle of vision — reaffirms our position as observers. Confirms undoubted talent for presenting female characters in the sort of depth which, even today, remains unusual.”

“Antonioni’s outstanding film of the 50s... Already the elements of this fastidious craftsman’s style were locked in place: the awareness of landscapes, the sense of people drifting through time and space, but held always under the tightest control, the persistence of vision. [The] shifting pattern of relationships [are] brought to a fine point in the famous scene of the beach afternoon, in which the camera watches and follows and controls as all the futilities are brought drifting to the surface.”