More about Antonioni

First, the previous post on Michelangelo A failed to mention another key element of his films: the astounding cinematography. These films (L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse) feature countless frames that could be (and probably have been) placed on the walls of an art museum. Antonioni sees the scene like a painter, and his placement of the characters against architecture, or in frame, or half out of frame, is always deliberate, always meaningful, and frequently strikingly beautiful.

L'Eclisse: The third film in the loose trilogy begins with a couple breaking up. Riccardo and Vittoria (Monica Vitti) have come to the end, and the scene chronicling this separation is, as usual, stunningly presented. We learn many key details about each character, and the placement of the camera and the editing all speak this disconnection. Vittoria is set adrift, now, and the rest of the film follows that drift into, if not a new love (with a stockbroker played by Alain Delon, whom you may recognize from Melville's excellent Le Samourai), at least a new relationship. Another incredibly rich, beautiful film from Antonioni. You can read it straight, you can read it as social/societal critique, you can read the social critique as metaphor for human relationship, or leave it ambiguous in your head and just savor the many valencies of meaning. And I'll say no more about the striking close of the film other than that it will force you to frame it yourself, even more open than the ending of L'Avventura.

(Note: this is also the first film I've ever watched twice in a row. My friend David and I literally went back to the first scene to watch that scene again. Then watched another. Then another. And before we knew it we'd watched it again. And uncovered depths. How many films can stand up to that?)

I've got two more of Antonioni's films at home now, but I'm afraid. This trilogy is supposed to be his masterpiece. Will I be disappointed?