“An exhilarating slow dance of not-quite-colliding bodies.”
Screening in tribute to Monica Vitti (1931 - 2022)
Michelangelo Antonioni redefined the concept of narrative cinema in the 1960s and with this film provided Monica Vitti (his partner at the time) her most sensual role.
Filmed in sumptuous black and white, and full of scenes of lush, strange beauty, it tells the story of Vittoria (Vitti), a young woman who leaves her older lover (Francisco Rabal), then drifts into a relationship with a confident, ambitious young stockbroker (Alain Delon).
But this is just the starting point for much, much more, including an analysis of the city as a place of estrangement and alienation and an implicit critique of colonialism. Using the architecture of Rome - old and new - as a backdrop for this doomed affair, Antonioni achieves the apotheosis of his style in this return to the theme that preoccupied him the most: the difficulty of connection in an alienating modern world.
