MovieChat Forums > L'eclisse (1962) Discussion > theme of this movie (spoilers)

theme of this movie (spoilers)

posted 19 years ago by Renard-4
21 replies | jump to latest

Just finished watching the movie, so j'écris à chaud.

I think that one theme of this film is:
That love or couples will break apart like atoms. They will be close to each others but if they are too close they can bounce off and break...

Monica Vitti is lovely in this and i'm sure that the ladies will say that Delon is too. The look of the movie is so lavish (I hope this is the correct word). They look like models. I love the way the women walks in this movie like they are on a runway. Ok that's trivial.

In L'Eclisse, it's seems that love is like a carress, love is something that you barely touch just in case the atomic bomb fell on you, and breaks you apart.

I love that you see them in lively place apart but when they are together the world vanishes. They are the only human beings on earth. That the most lively/busy place in the film love doesn't seem to exist (ex.:the financial market).
Also I like the way that one day everyone is beautiful in the market and the next it collapses the two sides of that world.

For Vitti, she needed to express her primal part of her with her friend so to exort the old love that still inhabited her, and start again. But even after the sense of doom was still present.

What I especially love in the last part of the movie, is when you see the same street scene: the jokey that goes by and the nurse with the baby but Delon isn't in the street and Vitti isn't by the curb waiting. Like a nuclear bomb had explode and they are vanished from earth. Only odd faces ... and what's left at the end is the sun, the burning sun.
The only thing that conflicts my ideas, my theories (if I can call them that) are the couples that goes off the buses. Does Antonioni says here that love exist elsewhere, that loves goes away, walks away, that the suburbs and the city isn't so desolate.

I will need to think this through more, but that's a great unusual film. By the way what does l'éclisse mean, is it like in the commentary says: Eclipse. a passage from one love to the other and in between a moment of darkness. A passage from the old values to the new, the modernity that was brought with the sixties.

I don't agree with the commentary that the end, the moment of still pictures, is the beginning, where Antonioni establishes the mood. I think he reflects on us, what solitudes can bring us if we don't let ourselve go to love another.

Anyway just another opinion... a great pleasure watching it.

Salut
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http://www.intervocative.com/DVDCollection.aspx/chauffard

[–] Bitter_Almonds 19 years ago

Did you notice how Piero's facial expression does not match Vittoria's after their embrace and they walk off on their own? That's the last we see of them and we are shown passage of time with the city landscape (did the commentator say this was the beginning of the movie? I haven't listened to it, yet) from afternoon to early dusk. We get that sense of approaching 8; we see some people on the edge of the screen, on the outskirts of a shot, and immediately wonder, "Is that Vittoria? Is that Piero? Maybe they're late..." Only to have it be somebody else. Haven't you ever had a similar experience, whereupon you're waiting for someone and ask yourself similar questions?

I had a good laugh at the end.

Do The Mussolini! Headkick!

[–] Renard-4 19 years ago

Yeah, I liked the idea of never seeing them at the end.

I just don't get the people getting off the bus. I figure it means life goes on. but still everything else in lifeless. I wonder what he meant by those people returning. I don't think it was just a joke. though as you say it is a good one played on us.

Salut
my growing DVD collection
http://www.intervocative.com/DVDCollection.aspx/chauffard

[–] Bitter_Almonds 19 years ago

The film is a love story set in the nuclear age. This isn't Casablanca, where, in spite of the hero not getting the girl, things are done more out of honour and a rigid set of values and principles. That's the old world. This is the other side of that; there are no heroes, no loyal damsels, nobody like that. Riccardo and Vittoria are more alike than we'd first imagine. Their physical worlds are literally cramped, as opposed to Piero's, which has open windows, real dynamic movement, and more light. But, it's funny, 'cause you think he'd be "the one" for her - he's the total opposite of Riccardo. This is the surface, though. Once he opens his mouth, all we hear is talk of money, fast deals, fast women, fast cars, etc., so it's really the same nouveau-riche world of Riccardo and his dusty library, only painted differently. Yes, life goes on. They might see each other at 8 and so on until either one is stricken with the ennui that ended the last...

Do The Mussolini! Headkick!

[–] christianbrook8 19 years ago

I have to say, this is one of the best movies ever made. I've seen it now about 6 or 7 times. It's all about the sickness of eros and the desolate landscapes of the new era of Italy, with the rebuilding of war strivken places. The love story almost dosent mater. It just serves as a platfoarm for antoniani's views of human interaction and relationships. the scene at the end where niether show-up is not a statment or a joke as much as a way to show reality, Monica vitti walks out of the film while trees sway in the now forground. Thus becoing almost a documentary. The whole film he (antoniani)is throwing the charectures out of the frame and filling it with something seamingly less important, but thats just it what is important? what convays an emotion that someone is feeling, a word, a musical note an image? This film is the third in a tetralogy about the alianation of people so you should also see la note, red desert, and lavantura if you want to understand more.

My favorite director

my favorite film

[–] teejay6682 19 years ago

(spoilers)

i love how the film doesn't resolve vitta and delon's story at the end and i love how all locations were shot after we don't see them anymore. i love how the camera returns to familiar locations so you really get a sense of the characters world and how they aren't the only thing going on in that world. sorry i didn't write as eloquently as some of you did. it's a great film. i love antonioni.

[–] crash_114 18 years ago

This film, as well as both L'Avventura and La Notte are all of the same theme: The alienation and shallowness of love among the bourgeoisie. L'eclise (and the others) are very much a damnation of capitalist modernity.

[–] Bree_33 11 years ago

This film, as well as both L'Avventura and La Notte are all of the same theme: The alienation and shallowness of love among the bourgeoisie. L'eclise (and the others) are very much a damnation of capitalist modernity.

Ok, "Comrade" .

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[–] TemporaryOne-1 17 years ago

I have to say, this is one of the best movies ever made. I've seen it now about 6 or 7 times. It's all about the sickness of eros and the desolate landscapes of the new era of Italy, with the rebuilding of war stricken places. The love story almost doesn't mater. It just serves as a platform for Antoniani's views of human interaction and relationships.

Exactly, but the ending is a basic statement - life goes on, spirituality is destroyed, nature is obliterated, real emotions are eclipsed, the human life force is eclipsed.

what conveys an emotion that someone is feeling, a word, a musical note an image?

Exactly, you cannot see emotions, you cannot see wind...

But Vittoria is not wholly alienated - she is amongst disinterested people, she is amongst people who think unilaterally and are mainly concerned with money and materialism, who are living a clockwork orange, and have zero interest in walking slowly through each moment, observing everything around them, feeling the life force in motion.

Vittoria lights up when she disrupts the clockwork orange, stepping out of human time and fusing herself into Nature's time, when money and materialism are eliminated from her presence, when her abstract thoughts are allowed to be freely expressed without ridicule or dismissiveness.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] morpheus-97 19 years ago

I don't think Antonioni was necessarily making a case against the modern landscape. He was just showing it as it had evolved in post war Rome. I think he was actually fascinated by the new architecture-if you grew up around all of that ancient Roman cityscape it might get a bit boring. That mushroom tower seemed to be a focal point that represented some sort of futuristic landmark.
But I love how he makes the empty streets, space itself, almost a character, so that the two lovers almost become incidental. Life goes on even though they are nowhere to be seen.
I am very curious as to whether he shot the stockmarket scene on location or if it was a set. There is no mention of studios under "Filming Locations". Seems like he rarely used studios, perhaps because of his Neorealist background.
I'm not sure which of the trilogy I like best but one thing is certain-it is Monica Vitti who brings the vital spark to each of the films and was the director's muse, stand-in and real life lover.

[–] fendy 19 years ago

The commentary on the DVD says it was the real Roman stock market. They were filming on Sundays, when it was closed. And most of the people there are the real brokers, who worked there.

[–] ObsoleteVernacular 19 years ago

Doomed Love

Last Film I Watched
L'Eclisse - Michelangelo Antonioni(9/10)

[–] overseer-3 17 years ago

The emotional isolationism of modern life.

[–] TemporaryOne-1 17 years ago

I think he was actually fascinated by the new architecture

He was fascinated by the phallic symbolism of the architecture...listen to the commentary on the Criterion release.

[–] pipeoxide 19 years ago

This film is amazing, and it should not be thrown in the "nouvelle vague" box because of the time-period and style.
The theme to me:
Emptiness and alienation in modernity.

Throughout the film we see this vast loneliness -- in the landscape and in the characters.

At the same time, there are some nostalgic tropes on days past and the degradation of romance and human interaction.
Beautiful work, absolutely perfect in my opinion. Cheers!

BG
Stalker does not enter the Room, that wouldn't be proper.

[–] enbilal 19 years ago

pipeoxide is right. Thie main theme is alienation of modern society. The final montage makes it obvious. Also, alienation by capitalism.

[–] fearnotofman 18 years ago

Not really a theme, but I liked how Antonioni expressed the loss of love. I kept wondering what significance the piece of wood and empty matchbox in the well meant. At the end, the well is drained. The piece of wood is Vitti's love, the matchbox is Delon's love, and the well being drained is their love draining, going somewhere else.

I actually didn't even like the movie, but I appreciated the originality of some parts, that scene in particular.

[–] Alexandar 18 years ago

Try this link>
www.freewebs.com/psymovies/lm.htm#58488811

[–] tyoder 18 years ago

Anyone notice the reprise of flowing air at the end? In the first scene, the rotating fan only blows at Vitti--Rabal is never in its stream--perhaps indicating that she is on her way out of that relationship. In Delon's final shot, the open window is blowing at him, perhaps indicating that the shallow tides of his affections are already on their way out as well?

[–] ThurstonHunger 17 years ago

Yes I too noticed the fan and stirring of Vitti's hair at
the beginning, as well as the agitation of the trees later
and other similar stirrings throughout. For instance, Vitti
dipping her hand in the barrel of water.

I took it early on to indicate her restlessness in the
stagnant relationship, while Rabal was happy with the
airtight nature of their love.

For me the film frustrates as I don't think we ever get
underneath Vitti's restlessness, this seems to be a film
about vagaries...in love/lust, and in the stock market.

Is the scene at the airport a celebration of those who
embrace the vagaries, and just simply ride the wind.

If so, then the thematic winds left me a little cold.
Still a fascinating film, I preferred Antonioni's
doppleganger duo, "The Passenger" and "L'Avventura"

-Thurston

[–] 17 years ago

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