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The Eclipse

Released Dec 20, 1962 2h 5m Drama List
87% Tomatometer 30 Reviews 89% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
This romantic drama by Michelangelo Antonioni follows the love life of Vittoria (Monica Vitti), a beautiful literary translator living in Rome. After splitting from her writer boyfriend, Riccardo (Francisco Rabal), Vittoria meets Piero (Alain Delon), a lively stockbroker, on the hectic floor of the Roman stock exchange. Though Vittoria and Piero begin a relationship, it is not one without difficulties, and their commitment to one another is tested during an eclipse.

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The Eclipse

Critics Reviews

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Penelope Houston Sight & Sound In The Eclipse... juxtaposition has become fusion: the two landscapes are made one, the visual imagery and the mental imagery effortlessly interlock. Jul 6, 2018 Full Review Tara Brady Irish Times There is intellectual rigour, cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo's discombobulating use of angles and aspect and that superb no-show last scene. Rated: 4/5 Mar 2, 2016 Full Review David Jenkins Little White Lies An exhilarating slow dance of not-quite-colliding bodies. Rated: 5/5 Aug 28, 2015 Full Review Penelope Gilliatt Observer (UK) It is a description of unhappiness by someone incapable of transmitting the feeling of it. Mar 9, 2024 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com Meandering through possibilities before delivering a confounding final seven minutes that are as strikingly at odds with the rest of the feature as well as confoundingly, maddeningly riveting. Rated: 4.5/5 Nov 4, 2020 Full Review PJ Nabarro Patrick Nabarro As with L'Avventura and La Notte, Antonioni's attentiveness to the sensory and almost karmic aura of the modern world is to the fore. Rated: 4/5 May 18, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Thomas V I recently discovered Antonioni and became an instant fan. His characters are such disaffected, bored and shallow people that it's impossible to feel much for them, which is strange but effective. And the fact that so little of consequence happens in the film doesn't matter, because visually the film is brilliant, with a great image in nearly every shot. And it holds up so well into our modern era. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review dave s L'Eclisse, mandatory viewing for anyone interested in the films of director Michelangelo Antonioni, is the story of Vittoria (Monica Vitti), a young woman in Rome who, after the end of a long-term relationship, finds herself drawn to Piero (Alain Delon), an ambitious stockbroker navigating his way through a crash in the Italian market. As with so many of Antonioni's films, L'Eclisse is filled with existential ennui as the protagonist finds herself lost in a seemingly uncaring city surrounded by those who strive for nothing more than material gain. Vitti, as usual, radiates in every scene and Antonioni's distinctive direction (in conjunction with Gianni Di Venanzo's cinematography) is top-notch. The bold and initially confusing final five minutes perfectly encapsulates the isolation felt by Vittoria, a directorial choice that could only be made by the Italian master. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member The trouble with Antonioni's films is that they are always far too stylish for any Anglo-Saxon film-maker to compete with. Personally I don't find Monica Vitti to be one of the most beautiful of Italian actresses, but the point I'm making about this film is that it would be entirely different were Vitti and Delon ugly, non-Italian, badly dressed slobs. NB A special applause by the way for Delon, doing such a marvellous, hilarious imitation/parody of, eh!, being-a so-a Italiano, con i suoi gesti delle mani meravigliosi! Stylish architecture is also very important in this film: the modern stylish Italian 60s contemporary apartment blocks (immaculate, without any wear and tear, staining, or dirty laundry hanging on washing lines), with glass-and-steel doors to their reception areas, contrast with the tantalising glimpses of a very familiar Roman Centro Storico (historical centre) street scene around La Borsa (Stockmarket) where several scenes take place. Both types of architecture, however, breathe effortless style. Vitti's character Vittoria is meant to be fascinating: what exactly is her malaise, if indeed she has one? Existential, existential. Maybe, maybe not. And the title? I haven't seen a single review of the film which asks what its significance might be. Is that because we are meant to assume that the film is, ultimately, so vapid, that its title is inevitably immaterial? Eclipse. It might be on a metaphorical, existential plane. More banal, it might simply be that Vitti's feelings for the lover she is seen hesitantly walking out on at the beginning then get eclipsed by her later ones for Delon. Sometimes a film, or any work of art, can start off from a very simple premise, and meanings and themes can be grafted on to it by deliberate authorial choice, inadvertent choices, creative interpretation of sources of bafflement by critics ... or just funny cases of luck (e.g. Picnic at Hanging Rock) which can, indeed, eclipse the real, very simple story underlying it. Sometimes I suspect that is what lies at the heart of Antonioni's oeuvre: he obviously had some sort of enduring pash for Vitti, and maybe this, like other films, just started out as a simple vehicle for her "charms", such as they may be. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review William L Love it or hate it, there's little room for middle ground. Antonioni continues to go against traditional narrative structure; if you're looking for a payoff or consistency, you'll find both lacking. However, looking at it as a commentary on our own inherent irrationality (especially as it pertains to love) and frustration with an increasingly complex world, these decisions begin to make sense. However, it can't help but feel slightly less profound when compared with L'Avventura, and the slow pacing will doubtlessly throw off more than a few viewers (though the last movie I watched before this was Jeanne Dielman; compared to that, L'Eclisse is positively supersonic). (4/5) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/12/20 Full Review dustin d L'Eclisse portrays the ennui of mid-20th century life quite beautifully, matching the lifelessness on screen with the drab mid-century architecture of the Roman suburbs. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member The definition of a foreign art film, trying to make itself to be much more than it actually is Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Eclipse

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Movie Info

Synopsis This romantic drama by Michelangelo Antonioni follows the love life of Vittoria (Monica Vitti), a beautiful literary translator living in Rome. After splitting from her writer boyfriend, Riccardo (Francisco Rabal), Vittoria meets Piero (Alain Delon), a lively stockbroker, on the hectic floor of the Roman stock exchange. Though Vittoria and Piero begin a relationship, it is not one without difficulties, and their commitment to one another is tested during an eclipse.
Director
Michelangelo Antonioni
Producer
Raymond Hakim, Robert Hakim
Screenwriter
Michelangelo Antonioni, Tonino Guerra, Elio Bartolini
Distributor
Times Film Corporation
Production Co
Cineriz, Paris Film Productions, Interopa Film
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Italian
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 20, 1962, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 17, 2017
Runtime
2h 5m
Sound Mix
Mono
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