L'eclisse

Michelangelo Antonioni is an interesting director, that goes without saying. Identification of a Woman was my first glimpse into his mind, but it was Red Desert that convinced me to see more of his work.

The film that followed suit was L'eclisse, which certainly felt quite different from the other two. The reason? Well, for starters, there wasn't much of a plot. It more or less just revolved around Vittoria (Monica Vitti) and Piero (Alain Delon), two young citizens of Italy.

Vitti had very much impressed me from Red Desert, so I was curious as to what else she had done with Antonioni. Here in L'eclisse, she shows the everyday complications one usually faces. (Y'know, relationships, maintaining a stable life, things like that.) Granted, Vittoria isn't unstable like Giuliana, but she doesn't have a better grasp on reality than her.

Personally, Delon showed his best work when under the direction of Luchino Visconti (see Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard for proof), but Antonioni got some good work out of him. Delon is essentially the pretty boy charmer here but he does get several good scenes here and there. (Though he's overshadowed by Vitti kind of easily.)

L'eclisse is quite good but I didn't love it as much as Red Desert. As stated above, Vitti and Delon are good. But apparently, this is part of a so-called trilogy with L'avventura and La notte. Maybe I should check those out too...

My Rating: ****