Chronique d'un amour

Antononoi's first feature film deals with a jealous husband looking into the past of his wife, Paola, via private investigator, which inadvertently gets her back together with an old lover, Guido, who unlike the rich wife, is a poor, barely scraping by car salesman. Although the two seem to be in love with each other, the difference in economic status and Paola's marriage keep them apart. Also looming over them is the shadow of an "accident" they feel responsible for.

Many have called this a sort of noir, and it's easy to see why. Paola could be seen as bordering the line of a femme fatale, there's the past catching up, the grey morality of the characters, etc. However if one were to watch this alongside noirs like Double Indemnity, Laura, and Out of the Past, they would fine "Story of a Love Affair" feels completely different, and besides these tropes, hardly feels like a noir. It would be safer to say the film has noir elements.

Like a number of Antononoi's later works, the film deals with alienation, as well as the bourgeoise. The disenfranchised characters who easily fall into damning passions is present here. The plot is very intricate and the film is carried by mostly dialogue, as opposed to later films where imagery would play more prominence. Although not as grandiose as the cinematography from films like "The Adventure" and "la Notte", his touches can certainly be seen in this splendidly crafted first film.

Thankfully, the writing and characterization is more than enough to carry things here. The multitude of plot threads, characters and themes are woven masterfully, and while not featuring the most sympathetic characters in the world, they are certainly fascinating ones, and that's enough.

If you can find this and are a fan of these kinds of films, it's well worth checking out.

The feature film debut of future Italian cinema star Michelangelo Antonioni is quite conventional and straightforward as compared to his later works, which are generally regarded as masterpieces. Though not in that category, this film ranks as a very well-made melodrama that dares to also include exploration of the darkest of human desires, specifically within the context of marriage and fidelity.

Chance also plays a large role here, helping to reunite former lovers who pick up where they left off, ironically thanks to the woman's husband hiring a private detective to follow her as he suspects she is having an affair. What follows is often high-strung, dense and very moving as Antonioni shows us the most desolate shots of the beautiful city Milan. Many of the establishing shots are long shots of corridors, streets and other walkways that create great sense of alienation, isolation and illicit activities. The ending may require a bit of explaining but still fits the overall tone of elegy and bitter sadness. A powerful and moving Italian melodrama that certainly could be used as a template for American filmmakers today.

A rich older man's belated desire to investigate his beautiful wilful young wife' mysterious past reignites old passions with tragic consequences. For those viewers who are uncertain of Antonioni's capacity to make enjoyably great films, this may be a revelation especially if you have a penchant for post-WW2 film noir with its attendant malaise and melancholia. With suitable B&W photography and accompanying musical score and boasting one of the screen's great beauties, Lucia Bose, in her prime, this film is a masterpiece.

Although Antonioni was part of the Italian Nouvelle Vague ,like Fellini,he began as a director of the neorealism school.He did not cut,however, the best of De Sica ,Rossellini and Visconti.

Best part comes from a sensitive Massimo Girotti but he's not really given a scene to shine -as he had in Visconti's "Ossessione" -.Lucia Bosé gives a good but a bit icily impersonal performance.

"Cronaca di un amore" is an interesting movie,if only for the things it forecasts: -the screenplay takes the shape of a private investigation,predating by ten years the second part of "l'avventura" and "blow-up" -the scenes displaying wealthy people living in luxury and exchanging futile conversations will be fully developed in "la Notte" But the most interesting subject is responsibility.Is a crime we intend to commit really a crime?This subject was rarely treated in Italian cinema ."Blow up" will come back to appearances .

This is Antonioni's first feature. Released in 1950, it seems to me both a harbinger of the auturer's mature style while also being a semi- remake, semi- rebuke of Double Indemnity., from only a few years prior. .

There is an extraordinary shot in this film, pure Antonioni, when the lovers meet on a bridge. The view is 360 degrees, we're not sympathizing with one lover more than the other. As the camera moves around its axis, our focus goes much beyond our traditionally intended targets as ship workers in the distance cohabitate the deepest focus with the characters we are following, who bicker over the merits of violating social morality.

If Double Indemnity is fatalistic, this work is nihilistic. If traditional Noir-narrative leads to certain doom, this story leads to only one finality, and that is the randomness and chaos of life, death and love. In that way, this work reminded me most of Woody Allen's late- career "thrillers"-Match Point and Cassandra's Dream.