For the first time ever, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte (The Night) is being released on Blu-ray as part of Eureka Entertainment's "Masters of Cinema" series. This 1961 film brought together acting greats Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau as a married couple in crisis. the film takes place over the course of one day and follows their steadily deteriorating relationship. 

As was often true of Italian cinema in the 1960's, there's much more going on in La Notte than the deterioration of a relationship. In examining this relationship, Antonioni examines society and the social isolation that has replaced the seemingly antiquated standards of behavior and civilization that used to govern our lives. In Antonioni's vision of the world, these characters have a hard time functioning in anything resembling a satisfying way in a world that has become more complex and layered. 

La Notte is part of a trilogy of films Antonioni created that center around this theme of isolationism, a trilogy that includes his breakthrough film L'Aventtura and L'Eclisse. Mastroianni portrays a renowned author, an "intellectual," while Moreau is "the wife." Over the course of their day, a day spent both living their lives and trying to weave through what has gone wrong in their marriage, the two ultimately grapple with such universal conflicts as how love and commitment can exist within a world built upon such hysteria. 

The film is beautifully photographed in black-and-white by Fellini vet Gianni di Venanzo and has been beautifully restored by Eureka Entertainment to the pristine glory that it deserves on Blu-ray. Eureka has also wisely restored previously censored sequences that help to more fully support the artistic vision of Antonioni and the film that he created. 

© Written by Richard Propes 
The Independent Critic