La Notte (1961)

La Notte

Over the course of a night, novelist Giovanni (a brooding Marcello Mastroianni) and his frustrated wife Lidia (French superstar Jeanne Moreau), drift aimlessly through the achingly superfluous Milan circles in which they travel. Lidia is grieving for a dying friend she once loved, while Giovanni is both bemused by and attracted to the advances of other women, particularly the ravishing daughter of a potential benefactor (Monica Vitti). Antonioni juxtaposes their starkly beautiful environments – decrepit neighbourhoods, exotic nightclubs, and a swanky villa party – with unsettlingly vapid social interactions to paint an unblinking portrait of a relationship crushed by disaffectedness and alienation, and one of the most psychologically acute films of the 1960s.

Berlin International Film Festival 1961 – Winner, Golden Bear
David di Donatello Awards 1961 – Winner, Best Director

Rating

PG

Duration

122 min

Country

Italy, France

Language

Italian (English subtitles)

Cast

Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Vitti

Director

Michelangelo Antonioni

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