La Notte links Antonioni's 'L'Avventura' and 'L'Eclisse' together in its stark and very beautiful portrayal of the disintegration of a marriage. Although less magnificently esoteric than the great 'L'Avventura,' Antonioni's film is a necessary piece of the trilogy. Marcello Mastrioanni is the self-absorbed intellectual writer who falls for the beautiful Monica Vitti at a black and white party. His narcissism permits his own unfaithfulness to his wife. Jeanne Moreau's performance is probably the most interesting in the film; her weathered face bears the mark of a used and worn trophy, her aged beauty is no longer satisfactory for her husband, and her intellect has long since been forfeited for the sake of his ego. Antonioni was one of the most interesting filmmakers of the 1960's. His uncanny ability to incorporate setting and landscape into the thematics of the work was perhaps unprecedented. In La Notte, the story unfolds primarily in the modern house-party, which is both luxurious and stifling. Perhaps what bothered audiences most about this film was Antonioni's failure to achieve the aching sublimity of L'Avventura's final sequence, or the astonishing radicalism of the final moments in L'Eclisse. Nevertheless, for all of its shortcomings, La Notte is a remarkable film.
