This is one of Antonioni’s best films though it’s unfairly cast aside in the pre-AVVENTURA period of the 50s. It’s like a behind the scenes Hollywood film like THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA or A STAR IS BORN, only ten times more critical and self-reflexive. Lucia Bose(Antonioni’s first muse) is brilliant as the superstar actress frequently disappointed by love and yearning for freedom away from producers, husbands and lovers. The ending has a deadly irony, Antonioni at his most sympathetic and cruel.