La Nuit

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni shot a series of films exploring the psychological torment of his bourgeois protagonists. In spite of the wealth and security they established, they had no idea what they wanted in life or what they were supposed to do. In spite of busy social lives, they found it impossible to truly connect with other people. LA NOTTE, from 1961, is one of these, and I think it's the very best of them.

As the film opens, one morning in Milano, married couple Giovanni (Marcello Mastroianni) and Lidia (Jeanne Moreau) visit their friend Tomasso (Bernhard Wicki) in the hospital as he lays dying. Lidia is clearly shaken by the experience and, after Giovanni leaves for an appearance to promote his new book, the camera tracks Lidia through a long, aimless walk around Milano as she processes her thoughts. Here Antonioni (anticipating his later film Il Deserto Rosso) shows the drastically changing face of Milano in the postwar construction boom, and the appearance of new tech gadgetry in everyday life, as just one more way people can feel they have nothing certain they can hold on to in this world.

Giovanni and Lidia, while never outright squabbling, have clearly grown cold towards each other. Gradually one begins to wonder if there is any life left in their marriage whatsoever. Things come to a head, however, when Giovanni and Lidia go that evening to a party at a rich industrialist's villa, and Antonioni's favourite actress Monica Vitti appears. Vitti's role as a foil to Giovanni and Lidia is powerful and moving, but I think its precise nature should be left unsaid here, as it's better audiences aren't spoiled first.

A mere description of the plot might seem like nothing happens in this film besides bored people talking and yet another mid-century European cinematic tale of adultery. But LA NOTTE is a film of incredible visual poetry, almost like the work of Andrei Tarkovsky. Even scenes that evoke the characters' boredom are shot as such beautiful tableaux that the viewer is enraptured. Antonioni often shoots his characters reflected in mirrors and the like, and there is some cinematic legerdemain here that just makes you go "wow".

Appearing in Antonioni's body of work between two similar films that are often considered a trilogy, LA NOTTE has often got less buzz than its predecessor L'AVVENTURA, with its daring plot twist, or its successor L'ECLISSE with its chic Monica Vitti-Alain Delon love affair. But I think that in terms of the picture-perfect visuals and elegant pacing, LA NOTTE deserves every bit as much praise as those other two classic films.

If you've arrived here at "La Notte" then chances are that you've enjoyed "L'avventura" and are thinking about continuing the journey through Antonioni's loose trilogy (L'avventura, La Notte, L'eclisse). But even if you came here first, don't worry because it's a trilogy in style & theme only; you can watch each one as a standalone since the plots have no relationship to each other.

"La Notte" is probably the most difficult to watch largely due to the deliberately wooden performances of our 2 protagonists Lidia (Jeanne Moreau) and Giovanni (Marcello Mastroianni). The 2 actors themselves later said that they didn't like the film, and that's probably because their performances were very constrained, emotionless and almost zombie-like throughout most of the film. But this is Antonioni's strategy; he wanted emotions to be internalized by the actors while being externalized by their surroundings.

And that's the key to understanding and enjoying this film. Rather than looking at the actors' faces for cues on how everyone feels, you must look to the settings they're in, the architecture of the buildings through which they pass, and the meticulously arranged decor of the rooms for hints of what's going on in their heads. This is part of the groundbreaking style that Antonioni is famous for in all his films, but it is perhaps the most extreme here in "La Notte".

The plot itself is almost irrelevent, so I won't waste your time talking much on that point. I'll just say it's the story of a mutually dissatisfied couple as we follow them for a 24 hour period. Together as well as individually they pass through extraordinary events (a visit to a dying friend, an extremely bizarre seduction by a mental patient, a walk through a depressed part of town, an encounter with a violent gang fight, and ultimately the bulk of the story at a fantasy-like party full of the Italian elite).

Although the marvelous Monica Vitti appears in this film, she is only a supporting character. Jeanne Moreau is the true center of the story albeit a frustrating one since her face is entirely devoid of emotion the whole time. This contrasts against the profound sadness and chaos we gather she must be feeling inside but doesn't show.

If you prefer your films with more of a human element, I would say definitely start with the Monica Vitti films (L'avventura and L'eclisse) where she has a way of projecting tremendous emotion even without moving a muscle on her face. "La Notte" is more of a display of fantastic visuals and stunning mise en scène rather than any acting theatrics.

Its better to wander into this film without knowing too much. The performances are all outstanding but the main credit must be handed to the artist behind it all Michelangelo Antonioni. It would have been quite beautiful to have seen this film when it came out, but even after all these years the themes still resonate as true.

I don't want to get into the plot too much, but this film is more about feeling. The friction and differences between husband and wife are explored.

Antonioni doesn't force anything, he allows a scene to play out in proper time. This film is full of symbolism and despair.

I just finished viewing this on DVD and I kept thinking - can anyone imagine someone making a picture like this these days?

Of course, this film was a product of a time and a place and a sensibility that is now long gone. But be that as it may, this is an excellent film about a married couple who have fallen out of love. OK, no one will be viewing this looking for escapist entertainment. However if you are looking for what the Cinema can do without a blue-screen to enlighten, engross and even (dare I say it) entertain while at the same time shedding some light on human relationships - this film comes highly recommended. Excellent cast too!

With his refinement and cinematic artistry, Antonioni was definitely hitting on all cylinders during the early 60's doing stories that would probably raise a loud 'HUH?' at a Hollywood pitch session - then or now.

While I don't rate this at quite the same level as L'Aventura, this is up there with the best of his films (IMHO).

A day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship.

Bosley Crowther had some kind words for the film, which also won a slew of awards: "Too sensitive and subtle for apt description are his pictorial fashionings of a social atmosphere, a rarefied intellectual climate, a psychologically stultifying milieu—and his haunting evocations within them of individual symbolisms and displays of mental and emotional aberrations. Even boredom is made interesting by him. There is, for instance, a sequence in which a sudden downpour turns a listless garden party into a riot of foolish revelry, exposing the lack of stimulation before nature takes a flagellating hand. Or there's a shot of the crumpled wife leaning against a glass wall looking out into the rain that tells in a flash of all her ennui, desolation and despair." To me, it all comes down to the cinematography. The casting of Jeanne Moreau and Monica Vitti was important, but the way we get that nice, stark and defined black and white is what I love to see. At a time the Americans had largely switched to color, some of the best in Europe were able to push black and white to the next level.