An adulterous married couple’s day in life and their progressively failing relationship.
The film La Notte (“The Night”) was directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starred Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, and Monica Vitti (with Umberto Eco appearing in a cameo). The film is set in Milan and explores the relationship of a disillusioned author and his frustrated wife over the course of a single day and night as they confront their estrangement from each other and the empty Milan circles they traverse. Antonioni’s history of eschewing traditional narration in favor of visual composition is continued in this picture.
La Notte got the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (first time for an Italian film) as well as the David di Donatello Award for Best Director in 1961, grossing 470 million lire and gaining critical praise for its exploration of modernist themes of solitude. La Notte is considered the centerpiece of a trilogy that begins with L’Avventura (1960) and concludes with L’Eclisse (1962). In the 2012 Sight & Sound best films survey, it garnered four votes from critics and six votes from directors, making it one of Stanley Kubrick’s ten favorite films.