Movie, 1960

Hugely poignant, atmospheric film about the relationship between the best friend and lover of a woman who disappears on a trip to a Sicilian island. The disappearance serves no other purpose than to push the characters off, not so much into action or purpose, but more into an impressionistic set of scenes which are invested with a certain amount of gloom and intensity as a new normality and dynamic is settled between the main players in the film. This is a movie in which characters interact with landscapes and settings as much as they do with each other, but never find themselves fulfilled; the suggestions are there, but there’s always a gap, tantalising and shivering. A film which is visually beautiful and stays long in the memory.