A sleazy, seedy neo-realist noir set in postwar Milan, all about shame, desire, self-hate and furtive surveillance.

Antonioni captures their passion with architectural precision; he presses his lovers into hard-edged corporate and domestic spaces by way of graphically etched, high-contrast camerawork ...

The stylishness of this noirish melodrama about infidelity and postwar malaise accumulates in layers, and it's not merely visual.

Story of a Love Affair is an impressive first film which visits many of the themes and ideas that were prevalent throughout Antonioni's career.