Discuss La Notte
Discuss → Movies → La Notte → General
Anyone seen this film?
posted by rooprectSTAFFMOD on March 3, 2021 at 8:35 AM
Not a whole lotta action in this corner of the board. Any Antonioni fans? Especially anyone who can help me figure out this movie lol.
I binge watched the entire trilogy (L'avventura, La notte, L'eclisse) and absolutely LOVED L'avventura & L'eclisse, but this one just made me go 'meh'. I know I'm missing something. But the (deliberately) emotionless wooden performances of the 2 leads was really hard to get into. Later in the film when Monica Vitti's character appears that's when I perked up and things got interesting because, just like in L'avventura & L'eclisse, she has a wonderfully human way of playing her part and drawing us into the drama.
But I guess since she was just a minor character here, and since Jeanne Moreau & Marcello Mastroianni were purposely 2-dimensional characters who never really change, it was hard for me to grasp any sort of statement being made here, other than of course "love stinks". Planning to watch it again soon, so if anyone has any tips on what to look for, say it here!
Reply by tmdb53400018
on March 3, 2021 at 7:00 PM
My reaction to La Notte was much the same as yours. For awhile, these 3 films were my favorite trilogy - then they were replaced by Marvel Studios' Captain America films! :-P
Anyway... I remember seeing these three films by Antonioni during a watershed for my film watching... I was taking myself more seriously as a viewer, and I appreciated the visual detail in L'avventura and the conclusive abstraction of L'eclisse. What I remember about La Notte is that it feels conceptually different from the other two. And that's all.
What I would look for is this: While L'avventura and L'eclisse are less about the characters than they're ultimately about ideas... La Notte seems to be more character-driven (I.I.R.C.). Look at La Notte as being quite differently thought-out within the context of the trilogy.
Or then again.... maybe I'm full of it! As I wrote, I was learning to watch movies more seriously when I viewed these films and I could be simply speaking for myself, not relating this to anything more objective at all.
Reply by rooprect
on March 4, 2021 at 1:08 PM
Thanks for validating my reaction haha. “Conceptually different” is a great way to put it, and maybe that was my problem; I was expecting the same approach as in the other 2. Great point about it being more character driven. L’avventura & L’eclisse were great examples of the Antonionian fake-out, where we accept 1 character as the protagonist only to see the entire story shift to someone else, forcing us to see other perspectives. You’re totall right, in La Notte it’s almost the opposite where we’re very focused on the 2 leads (mostly just Jeanne Moreau). Maybe the point of this different strategy was to contrast against the other two, in context with the central theme all 3 are telling us.
I’ll keep that in mind as I watch it again. And if I still don’t get it, well there’s always Captain America ;)