Antonioni turns a glossy romantic melodrama of modern prosperity inside out to reveal the essence of modernity itself.

Antonioni's ability to use the screen's illusion of depth or the way he lends an eloquence to the space between characters is a marvel. How he has these people stand is so much more expressive than anything they say.

The expressive elegance of Antonioni's camera movements -- the way he glides around a scene, composing and recomposing the human figures within it to suggest psychological patterns and unacknowledged erotic connections -- still has the power to amaze.

Antonioni further bridges the gap between comparatively conservative melodrama and the groundbreaking narrative and visual abstraction he would soon unleash...