L'Eclisse

Monica Viti, Alain Delon

Third film in a trilogy by Antonioni that made him an international, if temporary darling in the world of intellectual cineastes. Here he continued with his fascination with alienation, the existential disconnection of modern man from the natural world going on around him. People bounce from one relationship to another seeking fulfillment, fail and move on to another...forever restless, forever dissatisfied. They engage in barbarous nonsense like shouting at each other in trading pits at stock exchanges in desperate attempts to get the wealth they need to acquire stuff which will leave them even more empty inside.

More secular than Bergman, more cerebral than Fellini, Antonioni's star burned brightly for five years or so then gradually faded...now he is seen as a relic of the time when cinema was newly seen as an intellectual medium...something more than entertainment.  His films, like this one, are still watchable but slow and unengaging and survive as important historical milestones served up to undergraduates in film schools.

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