LA NOTTE

By the 1960s, the glamorous hedonism of Europe had reached a new peak. The scars of the Second World War had given way to new, youthful style and energy, at least for those who could afford it. The hollowness of the new hedonism became a theme in the cinema of the time, but nowhere more so than in Italy. In films such as Federico Fellini’s La dolce vita (1960) and 8½ (1963), the lives of the rich and fashionable were gradually picked apart, showing the emotional void underneath the sharp suits and little black dresses.

Style had superseded substance. Yet it was another Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni, who more critically dramatised this distinctly urban pessimism, notably over the course of a trio of films known as the ‘alienation trilogy’. Bookended by L’avventura (1960) and L’eclisse (1962), it’s in Antonioni’s 1961 film, La notte, that his critique of the rich jetsetters hits its mark most powerfully.

INFO

18.30 = CINEMA CAFÉ OPENS

19.00 = La Notte (1961) directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961, 122 minutes

All films with English subtitles