La Notte

I’m slowly working my way through the films of Michelangelo Antonioni. I think I liked this better than L’Avventura, but it is still a plot-less excuse to glorify middle-aged men and their barely-legal muses. The movie opens up with a loveless married couple visiting a dying old friend in the hospital and ends with them making out in the sand trap off the eighteenth green. The whole thing seems to symbolize an entire marriage over the course of a single 24 hour period. There’s lots of brooding and extramarital dalliances, and it’s all shot in a beautifully velvety black and white style (especially all the “notte” scenes). There’s also a long sequence of an exotic dancer balancing a wine glass on her head. Deep stuff guys!