Bloodless Coup

Antonioni's L'Eclisse

The images, the atmosphere, the music, it's a carefully designed spectacle presented in a way that makes you constantly confront questions of design and reality. Antonioni forces you to be clever, and to be aware. He makes you see and mark things through both their presence and through their absence, and he forces you to be aware that the world you see and inhabit can slip away at any moment. I love that about his work. And his command of stillness, of everyday moments, and his recognition of and appreciation for the awkwardness, oddities and uncertainties of life are also central in the brilliance of his art. I’m not saying that I don’t find some of his films slow of course. I mean I presume that’s the first complaint that most American viewers today would have with him. There came a point in L’Avventura when I couldn’t wait for them to leave that island. But slow pacing and frustration are things we can’t get away from, and as the Lincoln Center scholar on the commentary track points out, Antonioni was perhaps the director most associated with “European modern cinema”, presenting films that captured the rhythms, sights, sounds and feel of contemporary life.

This film is centered on two characters, Vittoria (played by Monica Vitti) and Piero (played by Alain Delon). Vittoria has just broken off a long-term relationship. She’s lost in her world. But she’s fascinated. She loves, and she finds the world wonderful. But everything seems beyond her somehow, or far separate from her touch or control. She feels like a foreign creature. Piero is a man on the make, and a man of his times. But even his life isn’t entirely clear, and while he’s more comfortable amid his surroundings, he’s not fundamentally decisive, knowledgeable or at ease. Both lead actors are great. What Vitti can say with her face and her body movements is remarkable. And Delon is moving and entirely plausible as well. That's no minor feat for a man so jaw-droppingly pretty, and in a film with such unconventional dialogue.

I really liked this movie. I also loved L’Avventura and Blow-Up (though the latter is a rather different animal). I don’t think we have films like this any longer. And I’m not just referring to its fragmentary structure, its quiet moments, its mystery, the fact that its principal characters aren’t always at the center of the film, or the film’s shifting tone and point of view. The film is fascinating and thoughtful, but while being smart, the key thing here is that Antonioni and his actors are masterful at establishing moods and engaging in a very basic sort of communication and illustration. The direction and acting in this are simply superb. But sadly, I don’t think many in today’s audiences would put up with it. People don’t want to be faced with uncertainty and complexity when they go to the theater. So sadly, we get less of this, and more Independence Day's. It’s a very sad state of affairs.