La notte (1961)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Michelangelo Antonioni

Writers:

Michelangelo Antonioni (story) &
Ennio Flaiano (story) ...

Release Date:

19 February 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

In Milan, after visiting dear friend Tommaso Garani that is terminal in a hospital, the writer Giovanni...

Plot Keywords:

Party | Hospital | Writer | Book Signing | Rainstorm

Awards:

6 wins

Cast

Marcello Mastroianni	...	Giovanni Pontano
Jeanne Moreau	...	Lidia
Monica Vitti	...	Valentina Gherardini
Bernhard Wicki	...	Tommaso Garani
Rosy Mazzacurati	...	Rosy
Maria Pia Luzi	...	Patient
Guido A. Marsan	...	Fanti (as Guido Ajmone Marsan)
Vittorio Bertolini
Vincenzo Corbella	...	Mr. Gherardini
Ugo Fortunati	...	Cesarino
Gitt Magrini	...	Mrs. Gherardini
Giorgio Negro	...	Roberto
Roberta Speroni	...	Beatrice (as Roberta Speroni Fortunati)
Odile Jean

Also Known As:

Dare e avere (Italy) (working title)
La nuit (France)
The Night (UK)

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | West Germany:16 | Singapore:PG | Italy:VM14 | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:17 (censored version) | Sweden:15 | UK:X (cut)

Filming Locations:

Milan, Lombardia, Italy

Company:

Nepi Film

Trivia:

Second part of the unofficial "Incomunicabiliy Trilogy" also including L'avventura (1960) and L'eclisse (1962).

Quotes:

Lidia: "When I awake this morning, you were still asleep. As I awoke I heard you gentle breathing. I saw you closed eyes beneath wisps of stray hair and I was deeply moved. I wanted to cry out, to wake you, but you slept so deeply, so soundly. " "In the half light you skin gloved with life so warm and sweet. I wanted to kiss it, but I was afraid to wake you. I was afraid of you awake in my arms again. Instead, I wanted to something no one could take from me, mine alone...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mad Men: The New Girl (#2.5)" (2008)

Not as engaging in it's detachted style as L'Avventura, worthwhile none-the-less

La Notte is very content to be a film seemingly about the mundane in the bourgeois world of an Italian couple. But what makes it worthwhile is that the time that Antonioni gives for the scenes and actors to breathe- ironically enough considering their social and intimate repression- allows for some curious moments to slip through (some of his best directed). The married couple here of the great Marcello Mastroianni and face-of-a-thousand-words Jeanne Moreau are not necessarily un-happy but unsatisfied with how their lives are at this point. The husband is a very successful and admired author, and they are well off. But the question still arises, underneath as the subtext in many scenes, what's it all really worth? Two of the main set-pieces/sequences in the film revolve around Moreau walking around aimlessly through the city while her husband is at a signing party, and at a rich party at night with a spacious amount of room for the guests.

All of these little, seemingly mundane moments are not all that the film is made up of, and it is in this existential (if it is relatively speaking) crisis for this couple that what real life that's out there and real pains strike up here and there. I loved the moment where Mastroianni is confronted by a seemingly crazy girl at the hospital; is she really crazy, or just desperate for someone's affection or attention (she is later beat into submission by the nurses)? Or when Moreau sees a fight break out with some young men in the less well-off section of town, the hesitation and surprise suddenly throws the fighters off. The party itself- where-in the 'Night' of the title is revealed- has moments of dialog that strike up the symbolic points Antonioni is making. But unlike the director's previous film, the visual-side of the cinematography has its moments but not necessarily as extraordinary in its overall make-up. Yet the initial peaks of interest- both in the actors (particularly Moreau who is always a treasure) and in the final, contemplative act with Monica Vitti, endures with better results.

Maybe the least in the 'trilogy' that Antonioni made between 1960 and 1962, which still makes it more watchable than the usual art-house bores of late. There is almost TOO much room for pondering about these characters, which makes for what could be seen as 'dull', but it really isn't. Detached, maybe, but not hard to connect with if open enough, this is a very good film if not one of the director's best.