Project 1B: Film & Sequence

Project 1B: FILM & SEQUENCE

DDW001

Kevin Kwak

La Notte – A night of encounters wandering in the streets or the world around you

Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1961 film, La Notte, follows the encounters and distancing paths met by Giovanni and Lydia as they struggle to uphold their deteriorating marriage. The film contextually occurs within a post-war Italy, a period of modernisation that replaced the archaic past in favour for new technologies of the world, “glass skyscrapers are going up and old buildings being pulled down” (French, 2013). I believe this is indicative of Antonioni’s nostalgic lens towards the past and his reluctance of the emerging urban environments. The post-war aftermath of WWII was felt with a mood of moral ambiguity, a disillusionment in making sense of the world. This confusion extended into film and the tonal style of noir, which represented the cynicism and pessimism being experienced.

Embedded within Antonioni’s filmography is an enriched dichotomy between the realms of the interior and the exterior, thinking and being. We’re witness to the psychological terrains within the minds of the people in La Notte and the physical spaces that they navigate. “Though his films look inward, they make sure to stay outside” (Carr, 2014, p. 50).

The notion of duality is sustained in the film through discourses between individuals and their place in society as well as alienation and engagement.

Through these realms and discourses we can formulate his manifesto of worldmaking in film. A manifesto that also draws focus on the internal struggles of the human experience; “the disbanding of relationships, the struggle to converse and cohabitate in an increasingly modern and alienating world, and on the sufferings of one being alone” (Carr, 2014, p. 50).

Antonioni’s La Notte powerfully sets this atmospheric tone of ambiguity, a sense of uncertainty, melancholy and nostalgia permeates into the encounters and spaces that his characters wander through. His distinct visual oeuvre of darkness communicates this. We witness scenes of the night in a high contrast of light and dark, reinforcing the dualities in the psychological and physical.

Evident when examining scenes of Vitti and Giovanni’s encounter, Antonioni uses concentrated low-key lighting that create exaggerated shadows to mask certain facial qualities and expressions of the two. Vitti’s ambivalence is visually communicated as her face is partially veiled from the shadows of the room, her internal dichotomy then extends to the exterior. The physical confliction of light and shadows are symbolic of her conflicting position between Lydia and Giovanni and as an individual struggling with the sufferings of loneliness. Antonioni’s manipulation of exposure is furthered by their mirroring reflections off the glass windows, emphasising their dualities.

Lydia embodies the aforementioned struggle of being an out of place inhabitant within a location. Her wandering through Milan and parties is provoked by the inability of her and Giovanni to communicate; a catalyst in the progressive disbanding of their relationship and fractured marriage. As a result she experiences an alienation and growing resent of her surroundings that leads her to wander and reconnect with an evolving world she’s unacquainted with.

As Carr (2014, p. 54) states, “Antonioni illustrates her sense of confinement … She is continually framed in such a way that her surroundings seem to crush her”.

Evident as wide-shots instil this claustrophobic atmosphere of the urban landscape. Antonioni’s manoeuvring of the camera is masterful, his directorial motives clearly translates to audiences. The consistent tracking shots and panning away or towards characters, positions the audience’s perspective as a body within the actual streets and rooms, spectating each movement.

Manifesto

Touching on Antonioni’s manifesto, my film attempts to capture the claustrophobic sensations and alienation that defines our place and time in an age of COVID-19.

Lockdowns have isolated us as individuals incapable of connecting to the world and each other. We’re left only to explore the psychological terrains of ourselves and entrapping exteriors, we’ve become prisoners to our surroundings. It’s purpose, to present that the existential and moral ambiguities of La Notte are as prevalent as ever.

Student Film: 1 min 17sec

Student Film: 1 Minute Cut