• Magnificent finale to Antonioni’s “incommunicability trilogy” with L’Avventura and La Notte. I’m sorry but it’s much stronger than Linklater’s “Before” trilogy and Antonioni did them in consecutive years
  • Antonioni’s last film in B/W
  • Haneke named it one of his 10 favorite films—I can see the influence- Antonioni is chilly
  • The film is exceptional in it’s entirely, a masterpiece, but the finale with the rain barrel is a formal wonder-stroke and a brazen- and avant-garde decision—instead of seeing the Vitti and Delon end up together, breaking up, or (more to Antonioni) ambiguously still there, he simply leaves them entirely– and watches the empty events of the street corner where they first met (including the rain barrel, the eclipse)
  • Antonioni is obsessed with the distance between characters and objects in the frame- sounds simple but is not—a  standout here is she’s standing right in front of his head like 2001 formal shot – an eclipse
  • Long silent opening between the couple (Vitti and Francisco Rabal as Riccardo)- brilliantly framed in his apartment. Like all of Antonioni films- this has a protagonist that disappears- Riccardo drops off
  • Great shot of Vitti’s legs next to the leg of the chairs which is just great framing – another of the fan and vase in front of the frame
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  • It’s an excruciating breakup- En media’s res breakup– 18 mins and Ricardo is gone there’s modern art in his apartment and in one shot he’s literally posing in front of the painting as she leaves and it works! Frescos. Its gorgeous -13 mins in. Beautiful. Then he follows her on walk of shame
  • Odd sci-fi structure in the town- like a skyscraper and water tower combined- Ozu’s A Hen in the Wind– such an underrated work. Architecture as character and mise-en-scene
  • Modern spaceship like structure blocking the sun- film’s namesake
  • The Kenya apartment- everything so meticulously picked out- Delon’s apartment, too later on—cold—superficial
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  • The stock exchange set piece—Antonioni is saying how this is all so ridiculous—the awful moment of silence. Antonioni hates these people. I think Antonioni wrongly falls in love with this set piece a little too much and these sequences extend—I don’t get the flying sequence either like the one in Zabriskie Point– weakens the work
  • Delon is barely in the first 50 mins- again typical of Antonioni
  • Antonioni’s men are no longer artists who struggle with art vs. commerce—Delon is cold and has sold out long ago – there’s no question
  • Drifting, malaise
  • There are constantly lines between Delon and Vitti- the telephone pole (amazing shot)- a great shot of them separated by a column at the stock exchange might be the best in this film which could be a series of still-frame art photographs
  • Another candidate would be at his apartment when he opens windows framing the window across the way outside—achingly beautiful
  • Two perfect-looking people
  • She’s framed behind bars with fences
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  • Incredibly crisp photography
  • The architecture or rain barrel montage at the very end—it’s a ghost town, horror film score—gets very avant-garde and metaphorical, empty street corner and building under construction and eclipse—alienation and decay, rubble
  • The stunning high-rise with the square cut out is a wow
  • Starts strong– Bogged down in the middle with stocks. And ends with a bang first 40 and last 40 are impeccable
  • Shot of it being dark out with framed window and light coming up- highlighting only the picture which is perfectly cut out- wild
  • After watching again it’s not entirely clear why Vitti starts up with Delon—I think it’s entirely possible that a ready of it is she’s being pragmatic because he’s rich, she just broke up with Riccardo (also looks rich) and her mom (who she lives with) goes broke- this would fit with Antonioni though he would never indicate a definite answer
  • Delon is a jerk
  • The rain basin is where they first met
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  • The moment they make love and appear the closest—after she lives he sits in silence and then the phone eerily starts ringing and multiple phones (he has like 7) start ringing again like a sci-fi film. He knows what he’s going to pick in his life- money- this is doomed already.
  • And again the montage ending—empty—vacant—cold—a doppelgänger of Vitti from behind. Strangers. What could be a 75 year-old Delon
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  • A masterpiece