L' Eclisse [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni

Overview

In this challenging drama by Michelangelo Antonioni, his characteristic long, significant periods of silence punctuate the message that people just cannot seem to communicate with each other. Capping off Antonioni's previous two films (L'avventura and La Notte) in much the same style, this tale involves a woman, Vittoria (Monica Vitti), who has just suffered the break-up of an imperfect relationship with a staunch intellectual (Francisco Rabal). Piero (Alain Delon), a stockbroker, casts his romantic gaze in Vittoria's direction and the woman gradually relents and they begin a tentative affair. There is much to appreciate in this man who is not overly intellectual and is blessedly free of complications, and the same can be said of Vittoria. Yet their innermost fears play upon both of them in ways that go against an honest expression of their love -- and against a lasting relationship.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/06/2018
UPC:	0715515210911
Original Release:	1962
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	2:06:00
Sales rank:	4,359

Special Features

High-Definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; Audio Commentary by film scholar Richard Peña; Michelangelo Antonioni: The Eye That Changed Cinema (2001), a fifty-six-minute documentary exploring the Director's life and career; Elements of Landscape, a twenty-two-minute piece from 2005 about Antonioni and L'eclisse, featuring Italian film critic Adriano Apra and longtime Antonioni friend Carlo di Carlo; Plus: Essays by film critics Jonathan Rosenbaum and Gilberto Perez, as well as excerpts from Antonioni's writing about his work

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Monica Vitti	Vittoria
Alain Delon	Piero
Francisco Rabal	Riccardo
Lilla Brignone	Vittoria's Mother
Louis Seigner	Ercoli
Rossana Rory	Anita
Mirella Ricciardi	Marta
Cyrus Elias	Drunk
Giovanni Fusco	Composer

Technical Credits

Michelangelo Antonioni

Tonino Guerra

Elio Bartolini

Ottiero Ottieri

Michelangelo Antonioni	Director,Screenwriter
Robert Hakim	Producer,Producer
Tonino Guerra	Screenwriter
Elio Bartolini	Screenwriter
Ottiero Ottieri	Screenwriter
Claudio Maielli	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Michelangelo Antonioni furthers the ambitious efforts of his two preceding films with L'eclisse, making it a fitting conclusion to his early-'60s trilogy. With this in mind, the film's motifs seem familiar -- again Antonioni employs a cold, unromantic view of life and love centered on a dubious heroine. Yet even if L'eclisse doesn't explore any new territory, thematically or technically, one cannot deny its power. If anything, Antonioni refines his themes and techniques for this film, making Monica Vitti's central character undeniably infatuating, and complementing his lumbering pacing with a wealth of meticulously composed images. In fact, the way Antonioni makes such a fraught film of such an arid script makes L'eclisse his most impressive yet. Still, this same gift for sublime nuance is admittedly challenging, almost too challenging for its own good: masterfully crafted or not, the long sequences and barren plot test one's patience, particularly when the emphasis shifts away from Vitti's male encounters. The film's merits far eclipse these minor complaints, however. The opening sequence -- when a confused Vitti struggles to escape Francisco Rabal's obsessive character -- sets the precedent for the remainder of the film, with its unsure characters, desperate aura, and hovering ambience. The film's conclusion operates similarly, communicating its confusion lyrically, body language contradicting speech; it becomes even more striking when Antonioni employs a final haunting silence, ending the film with an epic, despair-laden montage sequence. Given its reduced narrative and obsessive emphasis on Vitti's enigmatic sense of sadness, L'eclisse's strength -- its ambiguity -- is also its most frustrating characteristic.

All Movie Guide - Jason Birchmeier