La Notte

Watch this clip from La Notte, the second film in Michelangelo Antonioni’s trilogy about ennui and modern life; I also consider it Antonioni’s best film (although I’m not sure I like it as much as Blow-Up). You don’t need subtitles to be able to see the way the erotic sensuality is so masterfully evoked in opposition to the cold impersonality of the central couple’s (played by Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau) relationship.

Notice the incredible first shot; Antonioni takes us through three different angles in one shot, each one framing perfectly and appropriately the action that is happening onscreen. This shot also shows the influence of Bresson, a filmmaker whose spare and rigid (but incredibly beautiful and effective) obviously influenced Antonioni. The characteristic “Bresson shot” takes the viewer through at least two different angles in a single shot subtly, so that it is an almost imperceptible move to the viewer, no matter how big it actually is. The difference is that Antonioni’s three-in-one is much more stylized than any shot in Bresson, and his style is just as effective as Bresson’s.

Not that that’s the only great shot in the sequence. Watch Jeanne Moreau compare herself to the dancer, look down and dance with her fingers, pitifully imitate eroticism, and then watch her husband’s response- all in one amazing shot!

More On Michelangelo Antonioni and La Notte

http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/02/antonioni.html – from Senses of Cinema, an awesome online movie website

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/?p=22257 – Jonathan Rosenbaum on, among others, La Notte (and L’Eclisee, the next film in Antonioni’s trilgoy and, according to Rosenbaum, his best, although I may disagree).