La Notte – Eureka

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Screenplay: Michelangelo Antonioni, Ennio Flaiano, Tonino Guerra
Starring:  Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Vitti
Country: Italy
Running Time: 122 min
Year: 1961
BBFC Certificate: 12

The name of renowned art-house Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni rolls off the tongue with a rhythmic cadence. With the final repetitive syllables ‘onioni’, you’re forced to mull the name for a protracted period, and dwell on its majestic flourishes. The pregnant inflection of his name reflects the types of movies Antonioni produced: Introspective think-pieces providing an insight into the human condition, where the inward-looking and self-examining themes are presented in a way to dwell on and mull over. Like sipping on a fine whisky as you’re transported back to Italia at the turn of the 1960s.

La Notte (1961) is the second in a thematic trilogy, following L’Avventura (1960) and preceding L’Eclisse (1962). These films are loosely connected through the themes of hyper-modernity, showing us how industry and consumerism have encroached on an older, more natural, simpler way of life. This particular mood-piece explores themes of alienation and existential-angst in post-war Italy which is recovering from the fall of communism.

We follow a bored middle-aged married couple through a pivotal night in their lives. They’re portrayed by a pair of huge stars at the time, Marcello Mastroianni (La dolce vita, 8 1/2) and Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim, Bay of Angels). A key role is also played by Monica Vitti, coming off a power-house performance in L’Avventura.

With La Notte (The Night), Antonioni shows the audience how the industrial age has encroached on a bustling vibrant Milan – with its soulless new skyscrapers and high-rise apartment complexes. The forgotten dilapidated outskirts with bar brawls and seedy hotels. The smoky nightclubs with tawdry exotic dancers. A glamorous yet vapid party in a modernist villa.

This is the unforgiving city-scape where the then 49-year-old director sets his stage – all presented with strikingly vivid cinematography, amplifying the disconsolate themes. You can almost make out the sublime colour of the cars and the clothes through this black and white movie, the dark and light hues of the shading bursting from the screen – as the austere multi-storey buildings loom over the minutiae of the city. This is all accentuated by a moody atmospheric jazz soundtrack that perfectly complements the stunning visuals and helps drive the narrative.

The romantic spark has disappeared between our two leads, husband and wife Giovanni (Mastroianni) and Lidia (Moreau). Giovanni is a despondent intellectual, an author struggling with writers-block. You get the sense he feels like a kept man, relying on his wife Lidia who comes from a wealthy family. Lidia is completely dissatisfied with life, or at least her marriage, and the loss of her more youthful attributes as Giovanni’s gaze (and lips) wander to younger women.

In line with Antonioni’s maieutic techniques, the acting and dialogue is subtle and has to be interpreted. It feels minimalistic and authentic. There’s a cool disconnect between the pair.

Early on, we see Lidia privately breaking down in response to a close friend’s terminal illness and imminent death – this raw moment is a gut-punch and you can’t help feeling a sense of compassion. It’s a powerful moment from Moreau, and we feel anchored with the character as she slinks through Milan in her patterned sundress, wrapped around her elegant torso. There’s a famous sequence where she runs off from Giovanni’s book launch and rediscovers her old haunts. She goes to where the couple once lived when they were young and happy, only to discover that it has degraded into a shanty town with seedy motels and men fighting.

The film’s pacing may seem languid as there isn’t any sort ‘MacGuffin’ serving as a catalyst plot device. We’re getting a brief snapshot of a pivotal night in these character’s lives, and in retrospect, the couple encounter plenty of strange characters and moments throughout the two-hour runtime. The most involving element of the elusive plot is likely the extra-marital temptation Giovanni and Lidia are faced with, and whether they’ll act on those feelings of desire. This all reaches a crescendo at the party of a wealthy industrialist, attended by a gathering of mostly shallow young socialiates.

This is where Vitti comes in. She plays Valentina, the daughter of the business tycoon who is throwing a party. She exudes the film with her natural charm and vitality. She’s one of these stars who can just show up and elevate a movie. Like the other key players in the film, the character is cynical and miserable, but there’s a playfulness and a charm to this young socialite. Camera-man Gianni Di Venanzo knows exactly how to exploit her beauty with some stunning visual composition using light and shadows to accentuate the duality of the character, her vim and melancholy.

The most absorbing aspect of this film was the cinematography. I was utterly gripped by the wide sweeping shots of the oppressive (if beautiful) landscape, and couldn’t help but marvel at the much of the hyper-modern symbolism it was evoking. This is a film I would recommend to anyone looking to meditate on life and its existential nature.

Film:

La Notte is out on the 24th of November on 4K UHD Blu-Ray in the UK, released by Eureka Entertainment as part of its Masters of Cinema Series. It will come out as a limited edition with 2,000 copies. I watched the 4K disc and the visuals are sharp and as mentioned, the hues of the black and white shading are so distinctive, it feels as if you can make out the colour. The characters are so clear, at times it feels as though they are jumping out of the screen. The original Italian mono soundtrack is also crisp and clear. There seems to be minimal damage to the film with a slight mark at the bottom of the screen in some shots. A really impressive transfer.

LIMITED EDITION ULTRA HD BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:

Limited edition of 2,000 copies
Limited edition O-card slipcase
Limited edition booklet featuring an essay by film critic and scholar Brad Stevens and the transcript of a lengthy Q&A conducted in 1961 with Antonioni upon the film’s release

–  4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation from a 4K digital restoration, presented in a new and exclusive Dolby Vision HDR (HDR 10 compatible) grade
–  Original uncompressed Italian soundtrack
–  Optional English subtitles
–  New audio commentary by film writer Tony Rayns
–  New interview with academic and author Richard Dyer
– Interview with composer Giorgio Gaslini
– Original Italian theatrical trailer

* All extras subject to change

While I didn’t receive the booklet, featuring the essay by Brad Stevens or the Antonioni Q&A, I was pleased with the bonus features included on the disk.

Tony Rayn’s commentary of the film is highly engaging, he aims to explain why Antonioni was seen as daring, radical and highly innovative in the early 1960s. He speaks of the history behind the making of the film and draws your eye towards key shot compositions and moments of symbolism.

Richard Dyer’s interview is more of a 45-minute lecture on the film and it’s fascinating. The time absolutely sailed by as I watched him analyse the movie, crystalising many of thematic elements that weren’t so obvious on initial viewing.

Giorgio Gaslini’s 21-minute interview was far more illuminating than I was expecting. I loved his stories of watching movies while growing up in Milan, and how he first became involved in the picture through a chance meeting with Mastroianni. He then speaks about how his creative relationship with Antonioni blossomed, which is so fascinating.

The three-minute theatrical trailer is gloriously camp and cheesy – the tone totally at odds with the movie but a nice little insight into how it was sold to the cinema going public.

Disc/Package:

Where to watch La Notte