Set #2 takes place in 1960. Lumet strides onto the court looking confident. He pulls a Tennessee Williams signature model out of his bag: The Fugitive Kind, an adaptation of his stage play Orpheus Descending. He answers Antonioni’s move from the last set with a bold one of his own. He’s cast an Italian actress as the female lead. But not any actress, Anna Magnani! To play opposite Marlon Brando. Talk about confidence.

Antonioni doesn’t look ruffled. He’s back to his original game and is embracing his Italian roots. He pulls out L’Avventura. The crowd is not too sure what to make of it at this point. Antonioni went through hell to get this one in the can, so he’s not about to give up without a fight. Antonioni has obviously been working on his backhand.

Lumet serves with a heavy dose of poor, conservative southern U.S. atmosphere, and Antonioni comes right back with rich Italians cruising the Tyrrhenian Sea on holiday. Although the setting and characters are vastly different, the stories are quite similar: unlikely love affairs during trying circumstances. Both directors continue to volley at a slow but deliberate pace.

Lumet breaks stride with a rebellious female character, Carol Cutrere (Joanne Woodward), who threatens not only the tranquility of this small Mississippi town but also guitar-toting Val Xavier’s (Brando) quest to shed his past. Carol is closely watched by the locals while simultaneously kept at a distance. She looks to Val for love and understanding, but he merely wants to set her on the right path in order to get her out of his way. She is a nuisance, and often comes off that way in the film, perhaps a bit too much at times. Her performance is geared more toward a stage performance, although the scenes where she is not being loud and obnoxious work well.

Antonioni, meanwhile, hasn’t broken a sweat, letting his rebellious female character, Anna (Lea Massari), jump off a moving boat and then lie about a shark attack. Once the boat arrives at a rocky island, Anna confronts her lover, Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), who has kept her at a distance for too long. She is about to give him a heavy dose of his own medicine. Too bad for her that he has a short memory. Point goes to Antonioni.

Antonioni dispatches Anna with ease, letting the other characters try to figure out what happened to her. Blame is focused on her lover Sandro, who instantly gravitates towards Anna’s friend, Claudia (Monica Vitti), who rebuffs his attention while looking for her disappeared friend. Sandro comes on strong early, and Claudia tries her best to get away from him. Sandro stalks her while also looking for Anna back on the mainland.

Lumet returns with his rebel woman being told to leave by Lady (Magnani) after Carol causes a ruckus which summons her brother to the scene. Once the brother arrives, we learn that Lady was jilted by him and that she had carried his baby. Val, now a respectable salesman at Lady’s store, watches the events unfold. In both films, the men are now in the middle of something that they are not able to control while the women move the action along. The men have become spectators. Brando’s Val is less upfront about his intentions and maintains a more removed demeanor. Point goes to Lumet.

At roughly the same point in both films, the relationships between the main characters become smoochy. Lumet keeps it short and sweet while Antonioni lets the smooching linger for a while.

Lumet sets his primary confrontation up early and lets it play out gradually through a long ending. It’s not difficult to sense what is coming, only how and when. The scene between Val and Lady before all hell breaks loose is one of the strongest of the film. Lumet lets enough tension build before allowing it to explode. The very end is too neatly wrapped up thanks to dialogue from Carol that seems straight from the stage. The last scene would be better served on the cutting room floor.

Antonioni, on the other hand, lets Claudia and Sandro have some fun and become closer to each other, saving their confrontation until the very end. The ending is open, allowing the viewers to make their own interpretations, rather than having a character impart wisdom to them. While neither ending is upbeat, L’Avventura actually presents some hope, oddly enough, coming from the master of alienation. Both films are beautifully shot and maintain a slow but even pace. The Fugitive Kind suffers from allowing too much of the staginess of the play to creep in. Point and set to Antonioni, tying the match at 1-1.

Next up: Set #3, Red Desert and The Pawnbroker.