Il Grido

Antonioni's least known and most painful film. Made in 1957, it precedes the famous trilogy that begins with L'Avventura, and its subject is not the bourgeoisie but the working class. Aldo is a mechanic at a sugar refinery in the Po valley. He has been with Irma for seven years, and when word arrives that her absent husband has died he assumes they can finally marry. Irma tells him she loves someone else. Aldo takes his small daughter and leaves. What follows is not a journey but a disintegration. Aldo stops in turn with a former girlfriend (Betsy Blair), a woman running a petrol station (Dorian Gray) and a sex worker. He could stay at each; he stays at none. Antonioni offers no explanation; the man simply keeps going. The American actor Steve Cochran plays Aldo and is dubbed into Italian, a method directors like Antonioni and Fellini used often in the 1950s and 60s. Alida Valli plays Irma. It was shot in winter in the fog and emptiness of the Po valley, and that landscape sets the film's tone. Who it is for: viewers who want Antonioni's alienation set on class ground. Who it is not for: anyone looking for hope. The film is a descent from beginning to end, never recovers, and closes hard.