Directors: Michelangelo Antonioni

Review coming someday...

100/100

- Who wrote that?
- You did.

La Notte (1961)

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Country: Italy / France
Genre: Drama
Length: 122 minutes



Michelangelo Antonioni is a complete master of elegance and a brilliant student of female passions. The second part of Antonioni's unofficial "Incomunicability Trilogy" is titled La Notte, a wonderful essay on love triangles and its predominant effects on a modern burgeois society. However, it is much more than a love triangle story: it is a psychologically challenging Italian masterpiece of the man's eternal struggle for eliminating his necessity of building a relationship with several women after creating the false illusion of boredom because of a clear confusion of the terms "love" and "lust". Through deep character development and a delicious craftsmanship, La Notte takes us into a journey of inevitable perdition, confusion and lost priorities, referencing romantic cinema classics in the process.

Giovanni Pontano is a famous novelist who visits his best friend Tommaso Garani with his unsatisfied wife Lydia in Milan. Later on, Giovanni decides to attend to a promotion party for his new book held by billionaire tycoon Mr. Gherardini, falling in love with her daughter Valentina and jeopardizing his marriage after Lydia finds out about the affair. If this wasn't enough, Lydia, in the middle of her desperation, begins his search for another man and flirts with a playboy named Roberto. Michelangelo Antonioni won the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival of 1961. The film also won 3 Silver Ribbons for Best Score, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director given by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists in 1962.

At first glance, the plot may suggest a conventional melodrama of extramarital affairs. Nonetheless, Antonioni's delicacy converts such plot description in a burgeois feast for the senses, resulting in a fully-developed essay about the unsatisfied human condition. A gracious musical score accompanies a filmmaking style and a seducing editing that seems to have been based and influenced on the burgeois transition that Fellini suffered since the direction of one of his best films, La Dolce Vita (1960). Once more, a glorious (urban) cinematography decorates the passionate power of such honest portrayal of unfulfilled romantic needs, and the top notch cast enlightens such dramatic mastery with Marcello Mastroianni as the materialist writer, Jeanne Moreau as the existentialist wife and Jeanne Moreau as the beautiful daughter of a powerful public figure.

Despite the fact that it may be easy to state what characters are to blame, the reasons are not to obvious. Antonioni's complexity goes beyond what we may catalogue as a perfectly congruent heartbreaking story. The film opens with an eagle-eye perspective of the city of Milan amidst the sunlight, so Antonioni may also be one of the directors who want to express the exact opposite ideas of the film in its introduction and in its conclusion. In other words, the beginning means exactly the opposite to what the ending means. We are introduced to what are famous personalities within the plot and we follow their actions through a single day. Whereas Giovanni's popularity has achieved to make him surrender against the power of money and worshipping, Lydia is just an acquaintance for the rest of the fans. Such event is clearly demonstrated in the party sequence, which almost covers the second half of the film. The title, consequently, may indicate the viewer that the key events and the conclusion take place during the night, especially when lunacy, arrogance and alcoholism take over the people's souls once the rain starts to fall, screaming, laughing and jumping inside the pool. Even so, this is false. A best friend that is hospitalized and is near death is just only the motor used to clearly establish the rotten personality of Giovanni who hides his most degrading faults inside his novels. During the day, such hospital vist takes place. It is during the day when he is easily seduced by a mentally sick woman. Lydia, on the other hand, witnesses rockets being fired towards the sky while visiting the old area of Milan where they had lived once. Monica Vitti, one of the best Italian actresses that have ever graced the big screen, was the perfect choice for incarnating a seemingly peaceful and harmless femme fatale. She is a woman who does not care about the consequences of her actions; she just has fun and takes the best out of the moment. Naturally, she does not have any love priorities, not to mention her confused perspective of morality, but this characteristic is the one that seduces the psychological witness of Giovanni.

Despite how literal the ending may seem, it is not. Director Michelangelo Antonioni should not be underestimated. La Notte suggests a new beginning, redemption and renewed love, but Antonioni has the peculiar narrative characteristic of transforming his stories into cinematic cycles. Therefore, the ending is open to personal interpretation, just like in his next films L'eclisse (1962) and Il Deserto Rosso (1964). All in all, La Notte is one of the best Italian films of the decade, featuring one of the most audaciously sexy scenes shot during the decade. Extraordinary performances and a multi-talented script make of La Notte an experience to be reflected on, not to mention that the running time felt half-an-hour shorter than it really is.

96/100

"I wish that I didn't love you, or that I loved you much more."

L'eclisse (1962)

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Country: Italy / France
Genre: Drama / Romance
Length: 125 minutes



Michelangelo Antonioni is a romantic poet with a discreetly exuberant and varied nature. The final installment of the unofficial "Incomunicability Trilogy" is titled L'eclisse, where partial lightness is shown and a necessary psychological transformation is required. This time, a journey of epiphanies and self-discovery is the one provided, and although it is the worst part of the trilogy, it still belongs to the best Italian films ever made. The dramatic proportions of this masterpiece which tends to disguise its brilliance with a documentary filmic style is plagued with meaningful symbolisms and, alluding to the psychological characteristics that the characters may share with the dumbfounded audience, it is ultimately one of the most meaningful experiences within the history of cinema.

Vittoria is a translator who has recently ended her engagement with her boyfriend, a writer named Ricardo. When she decides to visit her mother who is obsessed with the Stock Market, she meets the broker Piero in a day of crash, thus beginning a problematic relationship which main conflicts are originated from his selfless and materialistic personality. Michelangelo Antonioni was nominated for a Golden Palm that lost against Anselmo Duarte for his film O Pagador de Promessas (1962). However, he won the Jury Special Prize award which tied with Robert Bresson for his film Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962).

L'eclisse is one of the most accurate and sensational depictions of the consequences caused by the loss of a person with which we share a strong emotional connection. It is also a direct criticism towards a society that bases its development in an awkward economy and a resulting capitalism. Monica Vitti is back for the third time, representing a person of unfulfilled dreams. Giant French star Alain Delon plays the role of a character who is divided in different, incongruent and contradictory layers. Man is shown as a being of psychologically compulsive necessities. Romance is interpreted as a vehicle of extreme sensations as weak as a thread. Clothes can be torn off, so can the soul. The character of Monica Vitti seems to be a combination of her two past roles in the trilogy. She is a delightful and emotionally versatile woman who can love passionately, yet a very weak and vulnerable person who desires for only one thing. Extreme emotions are needed for their own happiness. "I wish that I didn't love you, or that I loved you much more." She cannot be in the middle. Alain Delon's character, on the other hand, cares only for the time and money he lost when his car was stolen by a man who killed himself in an accident because of alcoholism. A monosyllabic relationship of catastrophic results is intrinsically promised through a masterful, urban cinematography and a hypnotic pace of mysterious stillness.

Analyzing the context of the film is a highly rewarding and interesting epiphany. Piero's materialistic nature is utterly contrasted with the obsession and the complete human dependence towards the Stock Market. Moreover, it is revealed that a nuclear arms race has recently begun, thus allowing a documentary perspective to be used during the striking last eight minutes of L'eclisse. Such haunting sequence may be a direct reference to the upcoming catastrophe that not only the world is about to face, but Vittoria's character as well. Love has always been the ultimate motor in Antonioni's magnum opuses and this is no exception. Love is the lacking factor that ends up determining the emptiness of Vittoria's existence. This may lead to the conclusion that Antonioni has, once again, resorted to his tradition of transforming his stories into neverending cycles, which is, by itself, a much more catastrophic and scarier idea. Therefore, the film begins with the ending, where Vittoria is found in exactly the same situation she wanted to avoid. In fact, Piero and Riccardo may represent exactly the same character. One has materialistic priorities; the other one is dependent of his feelings and does not provide the proper love and responsability towards a strictly consolidated relationship, a conclusion that may be drawn from the clues we are provided, such as him following Vittoria despite the fact that their engagement is over. Even so, Vittoria seems to incarnate the type of woman that creates the illusion that finding the correct man is a humanly impossible task. It is obvious at this point that her problem goes beyond love; it scratches the realm of the recognition of personal shortcomings.

L'eclisse is the most perfect conclusion for a trilogy which main topic is the inability of establishing an effective communication with a surrounding society. L'avventura (1960) ventured into the realm of love subjectivity. La Notte (1961) depicted a world of upper-class citizens and their insatiable thirst of superficial lust. L'eclisse suggests a beginning that involves self-reflection. It is a journey that invites to close a neverending cycle of perdition and to establish strong priorities that should allow us to handle our life in an easier way. We cannot control fate, that is, the will of God, but we can look at it with the correct and most mature eyes. Antonioni has ended a trilogy, yet he has not stopped expressing existentialist ideals. A very unique, symbolic masterpiece of unfathomable proportions and a gem that makes us part of a life circle of which we will never be able to get out of.

95/100

- I feel my eyes tearing up. What should I do with my eyes? What should I watch?
- You ask what you should watch. I ask how I should live. It's the same thing.

Il Deserto Rosso (1964)

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Country: Italy / France
Genre: Drama
Length: 120 minutes



After concluding his unofficial "Incomunicability Trilogy", Michelangelo Antonioni directs his first feature film in color and strangely adapts a much more experimental tone. However, he does not deviate from the usual existentialist and thought-provoking subject matter he was used to portray. In Il Deserto Rosso, the same thematic elements are treated in a much less accessible form, yet it has the striking ability of inserting several symbolisms throughout and adds a mental sickness that, humanly, is ultimately impossible to control. It may not be as masterful as his previous three films, but the experimental branch of filmmaking has always been a daring way of expressing ideas regardless of the decade such films were directed in.

Monica Vitti, the now considerably famous Italian star, plays the role of a woman who possesses a rather strong neurosis. She is married to a plant manager named Hugo, surrounded by a cold environment full of fog and industrialization. Her main concerns are hiding her mental condition from her husband and taking care of her son who seemingly has polio. In the process, she meets an engineer named Zeller who is heading to Patagonia and is abducted into a dinner party of sexual play and controversial discussions.

If the female characters of Monica Vitti that were assigned by Antonioni in previous filmic projects could form one single troubled woman, Il Deserto Rosso conglomerates them and takes such characteristics to an extreme. If such technique was not enough, Antonioni constructs an environment full of a cold and lifeless emptiness. Of course, this is the most predominant symbolism that resembles the already confused personality of Giuliana. The rest of the characters accomplish to take her to a more consolidated state of perdition, a series of events that leads her to the horrendous conclusion portrayed. The use of color and effectively odd electronic sound effects is a daring change of technique regarding the particular filmic style of Antonioni. The cinematography, although not as gracious as one would expect, allows to pay attention to a detailed industrial world.

Instead of focusing on the characters, we are offered clues for slowly revealing the true personalities of the persons that are shown throughout. Fog constantly surrounds the flesh and objects, putting their perspective and sight into shadows... event their own existence. It almost leads Giuliana to a tragic accident. After a particular series of events, Giuliana finds out that she is no longer needed. It is this lack of feeling important the one that strengthens a meaningless existence. One as a conventional viewer may attribute the guilt and injustice of the situation towards a mental condition but, once again, Antonioni has more layers of complexity. The result is an atmospheric drama, a drama that has a beautiful story told to the son of Giuliana about a girl who lives in the sea and hears voices... voices of everybody. These are the voices that even we as human beings desperately expect to hear because of an attention that we want to get. Even so, the short length of the screenplay compensates its brilliance.

Il Deserto Rosso is an experimental and hard-to-digest drama, and a worth-watching addition in Antonioni's filmography. Her acting abilities are still extraordinary and the direction has not lost its influential originality and talent. The symbolic meanings are still ethereal delicacies, and the approach towards the mind of a disturbed female may be a world full of incomprehensible elements. After all, how incomprehensible can it be if it is already incomprehensible in its lucidest state of sanity?

87/100