Director Spotlight: Michelangelo Antonioni

Michelangelo Antonioni can be best remembered as an aesthete. His films were never lacking in beauty, and his long shots and sparse dialogue were some of his trademarks in cinema. He was the filmmaker's filmmaker, choosing visuals over dialogue and substance over form. In between his neorealist beginnings, and his later successful English film, Blowup (1966), lies a 'trilogy' of films devoted to love, life, and meaning. They are L'Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), and L'Eclisse (1962).

L'Avventura starred a then-unknown Monica Vitti, as Claudia, a girl who goes on a yacht trip with her best friend, Anna (Lea Massari), Anna's boyfriend, Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), and some rich friends. Anna starts the film expressing her lackadaisical feelings for Sandro and her life situation. After swimming off the coast of Sicily, the crew ends up on a deserted volcanic island. Hours pass, and as the friends are ready to leave, Anna goes missing. As the party disperses on their search, Claudia and Sandro develop feelings for each other. Existential themes abound, Claudia expresses her confusion and inner turmoil, now that she is in love with her missing best friend's boyfriend. The two of them embark on a voyage that is part vacation, part search for Anna, part diversion from reality. The rest of the party goes on forgetting that Anna disappeared without a trace. This movie is particularly haunting because of the stark contrast of the beautiful imagery to the cold indifference of the characters. Sandro and Claudia exhibit ineffable feelings, pure and human. The film ends in sad portrayal of love and life lost.

In La Notte, we see a similar disconnect between man and woman. Marcello Mastroianni plays Giovanni, an established author, and Jeanne Moreau (speaking perfect Italian), his wife. The film surrounds a day in the life of the couple, where they visit a dying friend, go to a book party for Giovanni, a nightclub, and then a fancy party in the suburbs. Sparse dialogue, and beautifully cut scenes populate most of the film. Most scenes have at least one shot where the camera is docked at one focal point and the action flows in and out, as if we're observing rather than trailing the plot along. Jeanne's character appears disinterested, sad, and bored, while Marcello's Giovanni is pained and tired. Together they form 1/2 a couple, with neither really attempting to put in more effort to salvage their marriage. It resonates as a 1960s marriage set upon a post-industrial Italian modernist society, and the failures and existential issues each individual must deal with. Monica Vitti plays Giovanni's potential love interest, with great charm and success. Another beautiful story from a true modernist.

L'Eclisse, starring Vitti as Vittoria, and Alain Delon as Piero, glides along a similar theme of a woman's search for meaning in a reality less than spectacular. Vitti is engaged to Francisco Rabal, but their engagement ends within 15 minutes of the film's opening. Antonioni uses the camera well, by slowly focusing on images, faces, and stares, and holding our attention to his symbolism (an empty picture frame, the reflection of her shoes on the glossy lacquered floor of Rabal's apartment, etc). After dumping Rabal, Vitti ends up with stockbroker Delon, only to find that she's just as unhappy. This film is harder to analyse than his previous two, since the ending montage leaves much to the imagination. L'Eclisse (the Eclipse) could refer to the eclipse of Vitti's heart after two failed relationships, or the eclipsing of urban life by suburban ennui (she inhabits the lonely, dreary suburbs of Rome, full of apartment complexes, construction projects, vacant parking lots, and incessantly burning street lamps). Either way, this film is more morose than the others, yet we see Vitti smiling and laughing, which lightens it up towards the end. Regardless, it's a fitting end to a humanistic, modernist film trilogy.