"L'Avventura" focuses on an adventure in which nothing happens: Anna disappears from a yacht, her companions comb deserted islands looking for her, and in the course of their search seem almost to have forgotten what or who it is they are looking for. The introduction discusses the ways in which eros works in the film and how the quest for erotic adventure is related to the "existential anxiety" that pervades the work. Antonioni uses devices such as "le temps mort" and other formal techniques. The book argues that Antonioni was a formal as well as a thematic innovator who still has much to teach us. This volume contains a full continuity script, a biographical sketch, a production history of the film, the director's comments on the film, reviews and commentaries and a filmography.