L'Eclisse (1962)

87% of critics liked it
(15 reviews)
89% of users liked it
(5,804 ratings)

In this challenging drama by Michelangelo Antonioni, his characteristic long, significant periods of silence punctuate the message that people just cannot seem to communicate with each other. Capping off Antonioni's previous two films (L'avventura and La Notte) in much the same style, this tale… More In this challenging drama by Michelangelo Antonioni, his characteristic long, significant periods of silence punctuate the message that people just cannot seem to communicate with each other. Capping off Antonioni's previous two films (L'avventura and La Notte) in much the same style, this tale involves a woman, Vittoria (Monica Vitti), who has just suffered the break-up of an imperfect relationship with a staunch intellectual (Francisco Rabal). Piero (Alain Delon), a stockbroker, casts his romantic gaze in Vittoria's direction and the woman gradually relents and they begin a tentative affair. There is much to appreciate in this man who is not overly intellectual and is blessedly free of complications, and the same can be said of Vittoria. Yet their innermost fears play upon both of them in ways that go against an honest expression of their love -- and against a lasting relationship. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 3 min.
Directed By: Michelangelo Antonioni
Written By: Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1962 Limited
On DVD: Mar 15, 2005
Studio: Acacias Cine Audience

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
Vitti once again proves an ideal performer for Antonioni's thematics in what is probably her best role to date.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
All there is to the drama -- a prolonged detailed illustration of the moody surrender of the woman to a rare and elusive love. This takes, for its full illumination, a few minutes over two hours.
Douglas Pratt, Hollywood Reporter
...sit back, suppress the subtitles so they don't distract you from the images and let the 125-minute movie suspend and substitute your consciousness like the moon passing in front the sun.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
The conclusion of Michelangelo Antonioni's loose trilogy (preceded by L'Avventura and La Notte), this 1961 film is conceivably the best in Antonioni's career, but significantly it has the least consequential plot.
Jason Anderson, eye WEEKLY
The vitality Vitti displays makes her absence deeply felt in the film's infamously ambiguous final scenes.
Philip French, Observer [UK]
Vitti's elegant languor is contrasted with the cacophony of the Rome stock exchange, which is the director's metaphor for the madness of unrestrained capitalism.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
The characters' emotional twilight is unsettlingly conveyed by this piece of celluloid mood music.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
One watches -- and, perhaps more importantly, hears -- the modern world through his rendering of emotion, architecture, chaos, boredom, silence, and incommunicability.
Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television
Dymanic, inventive look at modern life and love in Rome.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Antonioni's love story is much like a sci-fi story.
, Time Out
Anyone disenchanted with the vacuity of later Antonioni will find the seeds of their dissatisfaction well-rooted in the mannerism and facile anguish evident here.
Mark Palermo, Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Because Antonioni shoots characters and places in ways that make them look unfamiliar, the impact makes the slow pacing and lack of clarity not just endurable, but ecstatic.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
while one feels the passion that Antonioni puts into his movies, one also gets the slightest sense of a wish that he'd go ahead and grow up a little already
Jeremiah Kipp, ToxicUniverse.com
[In] Antonioni's version of science fiction, he allows the incredible to be implied.

Read all 14 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Bob S

Monad. I just wanted to say monad.
Elvira B

It's useless to try to describe it. You just have to watch it. A classic of Italian cinema, about mediocrity, and being lost, and meaninglessness. "Siamo in media". We're in the middle.
Stella D

the bored and the beautiful. stunning film, especially the uncompromising ending. get your existential angst here. i liked this more than l'avventura tho i probably need to watch that one again now...
Lanning :

The EclipseOkay, after reading my flixster buddies' comments about L'Elisse, I feel as if I must apologize in advance for what I'm about to say -- in general. Yes, I admit it, I jumped into the trilogy with… More
The EclipseOkay, after reading my flixster buddies' comments about L'Elisse, I feel as if I must apologize in advance for what I'm about to say -- in general. Yes, I admit it, I jumped into the trilogy with La Notte, which, if you've read my comments, you know I like. Walter, I did not give up on this one -- I stuck it out. This being said, I'm that much the older, but, I fear, not much the wiser. Off-topic. Kind of. You be the judge. Has anyone who's actually reading this, having slogged through the above mire, read Haruki Murakami's short story entitled "The Elephant Vanishes"? Well, if not, it's a story about balance, in part, and about proportion, in part, and about mystery, in part, and about individual interest -- again, in part. And it's probably about more, but it's just a wee bit outside of "fresh in my mind." I have a small-sized memory. When an elephant suddenly disappears into proverbial thin air, what are we to think? I think some of us would think nothing. And for sure some of us would think something. And I truly believe that some of us would explore this phenomenon to the end of time, ala Fox Mulder. If I'd have come to this third part of Antonioni's trilogy before seeing La Notte, I can pretty much guarantee you that I would not ever have seen La Notte. The personal interest angle would be nil. But since I saw La Notte first -- the middle section of the trilogy -- I decided to check out the hind quarters, as it were, of this particular elephant. And what did I find? I found something lacking in all proportion to the middle. Something is out of whack with this part three installment. If you are going to do a trilogy -- and I never even saw the first film, as I've already said, so I apologize -- you should look for balance. Trust me, given my wholly biased perceived imbalance between part two and part three, I will not pursue, at my age, watching part one. Time is short, and precious. I actually learned this from watching La Notte. Believe it. Or not. Anywaysies, as my buddy Allison might say, this particular capstone is shrunkenly lacking, compared to the middle part. No pun intended, this baby is so black-and-white that even the idea of mystery is stripped to the bone like the bleached white skeletons incorporating an elephant graveyard. But I digress. But . . . Still, I would go on, but I hope I've already made my point. This one is very disappointing, like the way I feel when I realize that vanishing an elephant is not so simple as digging a time-worthy Shawshankian tunnel under the elephant's cage. It's actually, perhaps, the elegant possibility of warping reality, time, and me -- the reader. But L'Eclisse hardly comes up to, hardly fulfills, that degree of possibility. I'm at the thinking-nothing-about-this-anymore stage, beginning right now as I stop typing. But what do I know? I'm no Fox Mulder. I'm certainly not even the half shadow of a Tia Leone.
Michael G

There were certain aspects of this movie that left me absolutely floored. Antonioni's composition (because every frame in this movie is a beautiful photograph), his use of sound (or lack thereof) namely in the first 20 minutes and in the last ten as well as the obnoxious stock… More
There were certain aspects of this movie that left me absolutely floored. Antonioni's composition (because every frame in this movie is a beautiful photograph), his use of sound (or lack thereof) namely in the first 20 minutes and in the last ten as well as the obnoxious stock exchange scenes. And how can anyone neglect to make adoring mention of the luminous Monica Vitti? But for as beautiful as L'Eclisse was I couldn't bring myself to fall in love with it. For me it was a lot like Vitti's character, Vittoria--cold, beautiful and distant. The story was kind of So What. I'm sure I need to watch it again, but I wasn't blown away by the total package. It's a great piece of art, but not a great movie as far as I'm concerned. But that's just me.
Dimitris S

Antonioni masterfully juxtaposes the drastic male and the imperfect female,Vitti transforming in a black/white wraith,choking in the decreasing moods of New Italy.And yet,why can't there be a fitting hole for the cloistered emotions,the hapless devotions?Is it dreariness or more… More
Antonioni masterfully juxtaposes the drastic male and the imperfect female,Vitti transforming in a black/white wraith,choking in the decreasing moods of New Italy.And yet,why can't there be a fitting hole for the cloistered emotions,the hapless devotions?Is it dreariness or more unanswered questions...?