Michelangelo Antonioni's "L'Avventura" existed in a vacuum where life or death in modern society had no purpose, especially when a person goes missing. With Antonioni's "La Notte," a married couple feels that whatever purpose existed in their marriage is gone although everyone else seems to be having a better time. This couple is not engaged by anything, and only one person in this marriage knows it and is seeking fulfillment.
Bored, desperately unhappy Lidia (Jeanne Moreau) is married to celebrated author Giovanni (Marcello Mastroianni), and the two live a life in the busy, industrialized city of Milan. A dying friend of the couple is Tommaso (Bernhard Wicki, in the most emotional performance in the whole movie), also a writer and only Lidia seems affected by her dying friend who seemed to pay more attention to her than her own husband. Giovanni is caring but shows little emotion and would rather discuss his new book or Tommaso's letters. Giovanni jumps at the chance to sleep with a nymphomaniac in the same hospital wing before stopped by some nurses! Meanwhile Lidia is outside the hospital in tears and you get the impression that it is not just her husband crowding her, it is the city.
A book party is attended by both and Lidia, again, takes off. She visits a run-down area where she tells the cab driver to wait for her. She observes a momentary brawl between two young men which she tries to break up, shocked by the brutal violence of one man pummelling another. Lidia is affected by everything around her and seems more inclined to engage, to let her emotions come to the surface (she is momentarily fascinated by young men firing rockets). When she calls Giovanni to pick her up, they head to a nightclub where a dancer is able to balance a glass of champagne on various parts of her body (it is amazingly shot). Next they go to an all-night party given by a billionaire though Giovanni is more interested in the billionaire's daughter (a spectacular Monica Vitti). Lidia is given to glancing at attractive men yet never gives in - she is married but she is not sure she's in love anymore. The fact that she's aware and may or may not act on it is Antonioni's shred of optimism in Lidia.
"La Notte" is not a frustrating experience though it can be for some - the repression of these characters can border on indifference to the average viewer. Antonioni has cast two normally lively actors, Mastroianni and Moreau, and has tempered their charisma and animated personalities to such a degree that they seem like boring stiffs. And yet both actors' still shine by mere suggestion, including disapproving looks and glances, and that is key to an exceptionally absorbing film about an increasingly diluted marriage that may be coming to an end. Lidia is connected to her life, she sees what Giovanni doesn't see or care to. The extended all-night party sequence is Lidia not willing to engage, not to socialize and to walk away when some men approach her. She is an acute observer and when she reveals the unraveling of their marriage to Giovanni using phrases from his own love letter, it is tantamount to closure. Shockingly he doesn't know who wrote the letter but she knows. "La Notte" could be read as a tale of tragic marital repression but I think Lidia will get past the limited romantic love she receives from her husband. Next time a man comes up to her, she may go for it.
