I
have never seen a movie with more tired looking people in it than Michaelangelo’s
Antonioni’s LA NOTTE. Everyone has bags under their eyes and moves wearily even
the handsome, urbane Marcelo Mastroianni looks shagged out here.
Nobody
looks more tired than Jeanne Moreau who plays Mastroianni’s wife. He is a successful writer and the couple has
no children. Moreau, one of the most
exceptionally beautiful actress in her film history, with her drawn face and lack of
make-up looks miserable most of the time here except for a couple scenes during the
long walk through an old neighborhood she used to frequent with Mastroianni in
happier times. Seeing kids shoot fireworks
and other simpler pleasures brings a brief, tight smile to her face.
What is
the source of her unhappiness? Well the
ending is catharsis. She tells her
husband she no longer loves him and hasn’t for some time and is sure he feels
the same. He refuses to admit this and to
take no for an answer and forces himself on her as the movie pans away to the
end credits.
Relationships
are confusing. It is strongly suggested that Mastroianni’s infidelities might
be largely responsible for their deteriorating marriage. Moreau has a chance to be unfaithful at the party
that takes up about 60% of the film (the second part) but can’t bring herself to do it.
The
visually exciting post WWII Rome is a city on the move but much like LA DOLCE
VITA ,which this feels like a companion piece too, there is rot at the human level
and old values are replaced with nothing.
Here it is a married couple rather than a single swinging man but the end
result is the same.
All
the tired people…. The only one in LA
NOTTE who isn’t tired is the couple’s dying friend Tommaso whom they visit in
the hospital at the beginning of the film.
He is meant to be a “good” person and is still in love with life despite
his impending mortality. The Rosebud of
the film is he loved Moreau when they were single but she chose to have a relationship
and marry Mastroianni instead.
What
a great film! To top it off, LA NOTTE is filled with visuals that in direct relation to the
mental states of the characters show how lost they are in life.
