ALL THE TIRED PEOPLE IN LA NOTTE

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.