Review: L’Eclisse

‘Less like a story and more like a poem,’ said Martin Scorsese of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1962 classic, which now gets a new Blu-Ray release. The loose narrative serves the film as a melancholy meander through existential ennui, as Vittoria (Monica Vitti) drifts away from the end of an old relationship and into a new one.

Her detached perception of life mirrors that of the film’s masterful use of subtextual drama and eloquent cinematic metaphor – from the subtle (the slow and steady drone of a desk fan) to the cacophonous (the pointless chaos of the stock exchange). At the core of the film is a woman in a domestic cage, her wildness tamed by convention, disenchanted and longing for escape; it’s in the windows she peers out of, the aeroplane contrails that scar the sky, and the empty concrete roads she paces.

The film is exquisitely shot, with every haunting frame fit to be hung from a gallery wall, and Antonioni’s keen eye for angles and lines self-referenced in the opening scene as Vittoria, gazing at it through an empty photo frame, rearranges the objects around her. This HD transfer serves the film beautifully, with blinding lights, deep shades and crisp grey tones finding illusory images in everyday environments.

Some might sniff at the paucity of extra features (an interview with Antonioni biographer José Moure only), but the film alone more than speaks for itself.