La Notte (1961), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau, is an Italian drama that follows a married couple over the course of a day and night as their relationship reveals signs of emotional distance. Set in Milan, the film observes their interactions and encounters within urban social environments. It is part of Antonionis exploration of modern alienation and relationships.

Eureka - Masters of Cinema

One of the masterworks of 1960s cinema, La Notte (The Night) marked yet another development in the continuous stylistic evolution of its director, Michelangelo Antonioni  even as it solidified his reputation as one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. La Notte is Antonionis Twilight of the Gods, but composed in cinematic terms. Observed from a crane-shot, its a sprawling study of Italys upper middle-class; seen in close-up, its an x-ray of a relationship on the brink of collapse.

Two of the giants of film acting come together as a married couple living in crisis: Marcello Mastroianni (La dolce vita, 8 1/2) and Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim, Bay of Angels). He is a renowned author and public intellectual; she is the wife. Over the course of one day and the night into which it inevitably bleeds, the pair will come to re-examine their emotional bonds and grapple with the question of whether love and communication are even possible in a world built out of profligate idylls and sexual hysteria.

Photographed in rapturous black-and-white by the great Gianni di Venanzo (8 1/2, Giulietta degli spiriti), La Notte is a film about the yawning caverns that can open up between people who were once in love, and the difficulty of trying to fix something that may be irrevocably broken. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Michelangelo Antonion