Developed from a story by Antonioni with co-writers Elio Bartolini and Tonino Guerra, the film is about the disappearance of a young woman (Lea Massari) during a boating trip in the Mediterranean, and the subsequent search for her by her lover (Gabriele Ferzetti) and her best friend (Monica Vitti).

The film is noted for its unusual pacing, which emphasizes visual composition, mood, and character over traditional narrative development.

[2] According to an Antonioni obituary, the film "systematically subverted the filmic codes, practices and structures in currency at its time".

[4][5][6][N 1] It has appeared on Sight & Sound's list of the critics' top ten greatest films ever made three times in a row: It was voted second in 1962, fifth in 1972 and seventh in 1982.

The film would go on to influence several arthouse directors, including Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Jia Zhangke, and Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Sandro drives the two women to the coast, where they join the other members of their voyage, two affluent couples who also have difficult relationships.

Anna tells Sandro that she is unhappy with his frequent business trips, but he dismisses her concerns and takes a nap on the rocks.

Claudia decides to skip it, while Sandro checks out the women and recognizes Gloria Perkins, a beautiful 19-year-old "writer" and aspiring actress who is actually a high-end prostitute.

In order to carry personal items and equipment to the island, the crew had to build small rafts out of empty gas canisters and wooden planks; these were towed by a launching tug every morning.

At one point, ships stopped making trips to Lisca Bianca, and the cast and crew were stranded for three days without food or blankets.

[9] After several weeks of Antonioni and the crew working without a budget, the production company Cino del Duca agreed to finance the film and sent money to him.

The scene in Messina where Sandro encounters Gloria Perkins took two days to shoot; Antonioni initially wanted 400 extras for it.

[8] The sequence where Sandro and Claudia visit a deserted town was shot in Santa Panagia, near Catania in Sicily; buildings there were commissioned by Benito Mussolini, and were examples of fascist architecture of the Mezzogiorno.

The scene where Sandro and Claudia first have sex took 10 days to shoot, owing to the crew having to wait for a train to pass by every morning.

Youngblood described the trilogy of which L'Avventura is the first component as a "unified statement about the malady of the emotional life in contemporary times".

[16] Andrew Sarris of The Village Voice called it the movie-going phenomenon of 1961, and praised Antonioni's depiction of characters that cannot communicate with each other.

[20] A digitally restored version of the film (optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition) was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection (under license of Columbia TriStar) in June 2001.

The release includes audio commentary by film historian Gene Youngblood, an English subtitle translation, a 58-minute documentary by Gianfranco Mingozzi titled Antonioni: Documents and Testimonials (1966), and writings by Antonioni read by Jack Nicholson with Nicholson's personal recollections of the director.

L'Avventura influenced the visual language of cinema, changing how subsequent films looked, and has been named by some critics as one of the best ever made.

[27] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune defended the film against Andrew's criticism, writing that "it's easy to bash Antonioni as passe.

It's harder, I think, to explain the cinematic power of the way his camera watches, and waits, while the people on screen stave off a dreadful loneliness".

[28] It has appeared on Sight & Sound's list of the critics' top 10 greatest films ever made three times in a row: it was voted second in 1962,[29] fifth in 1972 and seventh in 1982.

[33] Much has been made of Anna's unsolved disappearance, which Roger Ebert has described as being linked to the film's mostly wealthy, bored, and spoiled characters, none of whom have fulfilling relationships.

[26] According to Alain Robbe-Grillet, many shots in the "continental" part of the film are taken from the point of view of an unseen character, as if Anna was following Sandro and Claudia to see what they would do.

[34] When asked, Antonioni told Robbe-Grillet that the "missing" scene (showing Anna's body recovered from the sea) was scripted and actually filmed but did not make it into the final cut, apparently for timing reasons.