L'Avventura, La Notte, & L'Eclisse

me: hey, I have a question for you
Auto response from male friend: When they turn 18, upper-class children attend a secret Thai language school, disguised as a ski resort, in Grindelwald.
male friend: do you
me: yeah, and first off, good quote
male friend: oh thanks
male friend: it's true
me: but what the hell is l'avventura about?
male friend: have you seen it?
me: I just watched it
male friend: well...
male friend: there are two answers...
male friend: 1)put simply, it's about a woman who disappears on an island, and the relationship that develops between her best friend and her boyfriend as they search for her, ...
me: I got 1
male friend: and 2)...
male friend: it's about Antonioni being a f---ing madman (but an awesome one)
me: hmm, ok, I understand that as well
me: so can you explain why the hell that movie was so long to prove those two points?
male friend: there are a lot of bizarre subtleties that he concentrates on about the relationship and everything...but I like just cause it's like this hypnotic visual thing
male friend: but it is pretty f---in boring at times
me: yep
me: I almost fell asleep a few times
male friend: i did fall asleep the first time i saw it
me: bigger issue was that the version I watched had these itty bitty subtitles and they went by very quickly sometimes, and I figured that it wasn't important what they were saying
me: I couldn't follow the plot anyway :-)
male friend: yeah..there's some stuff that i didn't catch at first...like when sandro destroys that guys drawings
me: why did he do that? I just figured that he is a complete asshole
male friend: well in terms of motivation...i guess he's just really frustrated at that point in the movie...but i just didn't get what was going on the first time i saw it...i thought there must be some larger significance to the drawings...
male friend: which is one of the difficulties...since the movie is set up like a mystery, but it never actually goes anywhere
me: well, I kept thinking something was going to happen, and there'd be some deep meaning, but after thinking about it, there was nothing happening, and there was no deep meaning
me: I think I prefer fellini
male friend: well fellini is all about an overload of madness...
male friend: and antonioni is all about minimal madness...
me: damnit, you were faster than me
male friend: so there sort of opposite ends of the pretentious lifestyle
male friend: ha ha
me: but at least blowup had that mimed tennis match
male friend: that's true
me: this just had a bunch of characters who were bored because they were too rich, and so they didn't even need to go look for the girl who disappeared
male friend: and the sex on purple paper with two chicks
me: well, yeah, full frontal nudity is never something to ignore
male friend: true
me: speaking of which, what did you think of the buffy finale?
... The conversation went on to discuss the Buffy finale, showing movies outside, buying Criterion films randomly (something I'm very guilty of), and why the hell The Rock was released as a Criterion collection DVD. What does this have to do with Antonioni's trilogy of L'Avventura, La Notte, and L'Eclisse? Well, basically, just showing that I both have a 500+ page collection of my last blog's posts, with an occasional movie review that I feel might be relevant. Or maybe if I ever get around to it, finally going through the last couple years of it and putting them all together and adding to my blog.

Anyway, as to the actual films, I didn't like either of them, although La Notte was better than L'Eclisse. Neither was as effective of a film as L'Avventura. L'Eclisse was just boring, with nothing else for me, except for the scenes in the stock market, which is saying something, when that's about the only thing I found fascinating about a movie. Well, that, and that the DVD I got was scratched to hell in the middle of that scene and I couldn't finish that copy so I had to get it re-sent. Beh to that all. La Notte was still as boring, but at least there wasn't anything like the last few minutes of L'Eclisse. And I felt like it was slightly more structured. I mean, neither of them really made me think too highly of Antonioni's films. Damn shame about that. I hate it when I feel like I should like films much more than I do. Because Antonioni is a much better idea than a reality.