La Notte (1961) - film review

On the way to a reception to celebrate the publication of his latest novel, Giovanni Pontano takes his wife Lidia to visit his friend Tommaso, who is dying from cancer in a private hospital.  The meeting upsets both Giovanni and Lidia and causes them both to reflect on their crumbling relationship.  That evening, after visiting a nightclub where they watch an erotic dance, the couple attend a party hosted by the billionaire businessman Gerardini.  Whilst Giovanni flirts with Gerardini’s daughter, Valentina, Lidia wanders off alone and ends up in a sports car with a handsome journalist.  After the party, Lidia confesses to Giovanni that she no longer loves him, but he refuses to accept that their union is at an end...

Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau, icons of Italian and French cinema, star in this bleak portrayal of a dying romance from one of the great masters of Italian cinema, Michelangelo Antonioni.  La Notte is the second in a loose cycle of three films made by Antonioni that explores the sterility of life and futility of love in the modern world.  The trilogy begins with L’Avventura and ends with L’Eclisse, all three films telling effectively the same story, one revolving around the meaninglessness of existence in a post-industrial world where money and the mindless pursuit of pleasure counts for far more than sentiment and self-fulfilment.

Antonioni is often criticised for the lethargic pace and heavy-handed symbolism in his films, and L’Avventura and La Notte were particularly ill-received by many critics when they were first released.  It is interesting to compare his work with that of his contemporary, Federico Fellini, whose penchant for spectacle and artifice drew bigger audiences and healthier criticism than Antonioni’s languid introspective explorations of the human psyche.  Fellini’s films may be easier to watch, because his colourful visual style and highly emotional characters are easier to latch on to, but Antonioni’s are perhaps more profound and daring, probing deeper into the darker aspects of human experience.  They are certainly more abstract, giving the spectator more space to reflect and interpret what he sees.   It might be argued that Michelangelo Antonioni was the Ingmar Bergman of Italian cinema – both were great cineastes with an interest in existentialist themes, and they died on the same date - 30th July 2007.

La Notte is a film which is primarily about a couple who want to separate but who cannot bring themselves to do so.  The sterility of the world around them and the unceasing ennui of their stifled bourgeois milieu reflect the barren emptiness of their love for one another.  Giovanni, a writer on the brink of celebrity, demonstrates his irresolute nature by allowing himself to be tempted by a job offer that will make him a wealthy slave to Mammon.  Lidia is more honest about her emotions, but even she hesitates, and it takes the death of a former lover to make her accept that her life with Giovanni is over.  The film ends with neither a parting nor a reconciliation - just a an impression that something precious has died and that night has fallen on two tragically linked characters.  Who knows what the morning may bring...

© James Travers 2008

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