La Notte (1961)

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

 This feels like an average offering from Antonioni, but even average from him is way beyond so much else. The story is simple and the theme's aren't groundbreaking in any way, but filmmaking and Antonioni's direction is what makes the film as effective as it is. The movie follows an upper class couple around whose marriage is clearly on the rocks. Antonioni has such patience with the two leads and really allows them to find honest moments that speak volumes about where their characters are. The slow pacing can be a little too wandering at times, but the patience is highly respectable.

The story is about the illusion of love in the lives of the rich and comfortable, and how their dissatisfaction is most realized in their love lives. This theme is realized with just one this one couple, so it's a small movie, but like I said, it has some very effective, genuine moments. It's also a very modern movie, especially in regards to the incredibly high divorce rate in the Western world and in the world of the rich. Despite the fact the movie is from the early 1960's, it could have been about people who are living in 2012.

Grade: B+

L'Avventura (1960)

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

 The central mystery in this movie is the disappearance of a woman. But midway through the movie, that mystery is totally abandoned, but in a way, we get to see the type of life that may have motivated the woman to disappear in the first place. It's a movie about the alienation of the rich and privileged. Instead of criticizing the whole elitist culture like so many other films I've reviewed recently have done, this film takes a look at the rich and privileged on a more individual and sympathetic basis.

It doesn't let them off the hook, but it shows the existential crisis that their privileged, but boring, lifestyle brings. The main character, Claudia, is the one who most undergoes an existential crisis, and the brooding and internal crises that she goes through are realized brilliantly by Antonioni. All of her feelings come across due to the patient pacing of the film and especially the meticulously composed shots. This is a movie that uses visuals exactly how they should be used in film, not just as beauty, but as beauty that tells us who the people in photos are.

Grade: A