La Notte (1961; aka The Night) is the middle of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s trilogy including L’Aventura and L’Eclisse, and the one I’d always wanted to see. Antonioni’s slow, dispassionate style is intentionally alienating and difficult to wrestle with; I completely understand those who get bored by his work. Yet I do find something of value and of considerable interest in his challenging approach, particularly this era in the Italian New Wave. These movies are visually compelling due to the composition of the frame and the use of urban architecture and space, but also because of the era’s fashions and his casting of attractive, talented stars; in La Notte, the focus is on a married couple played by Marcello Mastrononi and French star Jeanne Moreau. Mastrononi’s character is an acclaimed writer who has just published another book, and the film’s structure takes place over one day and night, a temporal frame that I’m always a sucker for. Things begin with a visit to a sick friend in hospital, dying of cancer, and that also frames the proceedings where we observe the couple separate and reunite, converse and wander. There is a dissatisfaction and division apparent – are they even in love anymore? The way Antonioni frames the urban experience, shot by cinematographer Gianni de Venanzo, this alienation is also between the characters and their surroundings, particularly in the first half where Moreau walks through the city by herself; the second half follows the couple dividing again at a rich industrialist’s garden party. Throughout the movie, we overhear snippets of other people’s conversations and the couple observe other stories. Into the mix is the younger character played by Monica Vitti, who attracts Mastrononi’s wandering eye, and represents the promise of the new. From the framing of shots, the movement of the camera through spaces, the dialogue and to the faces of its three principal stars, I thought La Notte was a masterpiece. The film is epic in aesthetic and style, even though it is focused on intimate emotions, communicating a malaise and a soul sickness in this modern society. Watched the Eureka’s Masters Of Cinema Blu-Ray. Recommended.
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