Cinema: A Man Without a Woman

Il Grido is the rough draft of a masterpiece. In it Michelangelo Antonioni mines and examines the material that he later elaborated in L'Avventura, his sublime lament for the living dead.

The story is set in the Po Valley. As it begins, a factory hand (Steve Cochran) is jilted by his mistress (Alida Valli), who goes to another man. Stunned and unmanned, the hero runs without really knowing where he is going, runs with the Po as it runs downhill to the sea. On the way he meets three women: one from the town (Betsy Blair), one from the country (Dorian Gray),...

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