Alain Delon - The Screen Icon's Collection (1962)

Average rating

(70%)

Director:	Michelangelo Antonioni
Genres:	World Cinema
Languages:	English
Released:	June 25, 2007

The conclusion of Michelangelo Antonioni's informal trilogy on modern malaise. 'The Eclipse' tells the story of a young woman (Vitti) who leaves one lover only to drift into a relationship with another.

Radio Times

The winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1962, this troubling, stylised film completed director Michelangelo Antonioni's “alienation trilogy”. As in L'Avventura and La Notte, Monica Vitti is at the centre of events, here ending a passionless affair with the bookish Francisco Rabal to indulge in a fling with her mother's stockbroker, Alain Delon. Returning to his recurrent themes of the desensitising impact of urban life and the hopelessness of love, Antonioni presents his bleakest portrait of the modern age, with the famous seven-minute, 58-shot montage of cold, impersonal buildings symbolising the city's final victory over its inhabitants.

Highest rated reviews

7 out of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2.0 stars
Review of L'Eclisse

Calvin from , 15th July, 2007

As an Antonioni fan (The Passenger, L'Avventura), I have really tried to like this film - twice. But I have to give in to an expression of disappointment here. The performances by Vitti and Delon are fine, if a little contradictory - Vitti playing the ennui straight while Delon attempts to inject some energy and even humour to his role. And the film doesn't look too bad either (though it is hardly as striking as some of Antonioni's later work such as Il Deserto Rosso & Zabriskie Point), with the much celebrated closing few minutes of bleak architectural tracing being a definite highlight of the film. The problem, for me, is the film's emptiness. Of course, this is a film about such 'emptiness', and reviewer's can tie themselves into self-reflexive knots with this... But the points of comparison used by Antonioni are too facile. Of course these lives appear dull when contrasted with Kenya, flying through clouds, etc. Ultimately, the lifelessness on show here seems less a reflection of contemporary society than a sign of a filmmaker (temporarily) out of inspiration.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3.0 stars
Intruiging, stylised but ultimately pointless

Pete Moulding from Coventry, 26th October, 2005

The film opens slowly, there's about 5 minutes just of Monica Villi (apologies if I get the names wrong, I'm going off memory) being restless and moving things around. the story barely gains any momentum from this moment. I enjoyed the film, despite the slow pace, I was interested by the characters, played well by Delon and Villi. However I was searching throughout the whole film for something that had some significance. After the film ended I was forced to admit that it was all just a stylised waste of time. Antonioni is very indulgent, he includes shots which are visually very pleasing but ultimately of no use to the plot. There are whole tracts of Stock market trading scenes which as far as I can see, would make no sense to anyone without close knowledge of the italian stock market. I enjoyed the film, and was interested in the development, but only because I was trying to work out what the point was. Turned out there wasn't a point. 6/10 because it is pleasing to watch

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