Antonioni’s belated feature-film debut is a fine romantic melodrama which is actually a variation on a favorite noir theme – that of the lovers planning to dispose of a third party who stands between them. Another genre device adopted here is the investigative framework – with the intended victim himself, the girl’s husband, suddenly deciding to pry into her past.
Paradoxically, the young couple had been involved in the ‘accidental’ death of the man’s ex-girlfriend – and, unaware of the source behind the current investigation, are afraid that the old ‘crime’ has come back to haunt them! Antonioni’s coup, then, is in the way that the couple are so blinded by their passion for each other – they’ve been brought together anew by a letter informing them of the investigation, after having opted to go their separate ways so as not to arouse suspicion over the death of their common acquaintance – that they don’t realize that history is about to repeat itself. Even if they succeed in getting rid of the girl’s husband, they still can’t be together: the final irony is that the husband’s death occurs in spite of themselves in a road accident – but the girl has no way of knowing this and, when the police arrive at her house bearing the tragic news, she panics and flees...
Still, the central relationship isn’t the most solid: the couple even admit to themselves that, hadn’t the letter of warning been sent, their paths would probably never have crossed again; besides, the girl expects the man to tolerate the fact that she married someone else – but, whenever she sees him in the company of an attractive model, she works up a jealous temper! The two stars are very well cast: in a career spanning six decades (with appearances in everything from Art-house to peplums and “Euro-Cult”), Massimo Girotti was one of the most durable of Italian leading men – actually, he had played a similar role to the one here in another important debut in Italian cinema, Luchino Visconti’s OSSESSIONE (1943). Lucia Bose' was not only a top star (particularly during the 1950s) but one of the loveliest female presences ever in Italian cinema – again, her filmography has been quite varied and included performances for such renowned masters of World Cinema as Luis Bunuel, Jean Cocteau, the Taviani brothers, Federico Fellini, Francesco Rosi, etc.
In comparison to his later work, which borders on abstraction, the director’s approach to narrative here is decidedly conventional – as if he was still finding his feet…but, make no mistake about it, this is a startlingly assured (even refined) first film. By the way, at one point, a character in the film makes a reference to Camille – interestingly, Antonioni later made THE LADY WITHOUT CAMELIAS (1953) with the same leading lady! Finally, it’s worth noting that several elements typical of Antonioni’s cinema are already in evidence here: the plot mechanics being merely the excuse for a probing character study, the fated love affair, the fickle nature of relationships, the criticism of the jaded rich, the gloomy locations, the would-be mystery, etc.
Unfortunately, my experience watching STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR was somewhat dampened by the distractingly ‘processed’ sound-effects pretty much throughout the entire duration of the film – which seem to be the result of an over-zealous digital restoration! Similarly, even if I have no way of knowing whether this is how it was supposed to sound, Giovanni Fusco’s histrionic score came off as deafeningly loud and, consequently, drowned out part of the dialogue!
Paradoxically, the young couple had been involved in the ‘accidental’ death of the man’s ex-girlfriend – and, unaware of the source behind the current investigation, are afraid that the old ‘crime’ has come back to haunt them! Antonioni’s coup, then, is in the way that the couple are so blinded by their passion for each other – they’ve been brought together anew by a letter informing them of the investigation, after having opted to go their separate ways so as not to arouse suspicion over the death of their common acquaintance – that they don’t realize that history is about to repeat itself. Even if they succeed in getting rid of the girl’s husband, they still can’t be together: the final irony is that the husband’s death occurs in spite of themselves in a road accident – but the girl has no way of knowing this and, when the police arrive at her house bearing the tragic news, she panics and flees...
Still, the central relationship isn’t the most solid: the couple even admit to themselves that, hadn’t the letter of warning been sent, their paths would probably never have crossed again; besides, the girl expects the man to tolerate the fact that she married someone else – but, whenever she sees him in the company of an attractive model, she works up a jealous temper! The two stars are very well cast: in a career spanning six decades (with appearances in everything from Art-house to peplums and “Euro-Cult”), Massimo Girotti was one of the most durable of Italian leading men – actually, he had played a similar role to the one here in another important debut in Italian cinema, Luchino Visconti’s OSSESSIONE (1943). Lucia Bose' was not only a top star (particularly during the 1950s) but one of the loveliest female presences ever in Italian cinema – again, her filmography has been quite varied and included performances for such renowned masters of World Cinema as Luis Bunuel, Jean Cocteau, the Taviani brothers, Federico Fellini, Francesco Rosi, etc.
In comparison to his later work, which borders on abstraction, the director’s approach to narrative here is decidedly conventional – as if he was still finding his feet…but, make no mistake about it, this is a startlingly assured (even refined) first film. By the way, at one point, a character in the film makes a reference to Camille – interestingly, Antonioni later made THE LADY WITHOUT CAMELIAS (1953) with the same leading lady! Finally, it’s worth noting that several elements typical of Antonioni’s cinema are already in evidence here: the plot mechanics being merely the excuse for a probing character study, the fated love affair, the fickle nature of relationships, the criticism of the jaded rich, the gloomy locations, the would-be mystery, etc.
Unfortunately, my experience watching STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR was somewhat dampened by the distractingly ‘processed’ sound-effects pretty much throughout the entire duration of the film – which seem to be the result of an over-zealous digital restoration! Similarly, even if I have no way of knowing whether this is how it was supposed to sound, Giovanni Fusco’s histrionic score came off as deafeningly loud and, consequently, drowned out part of the dialogue!