The Trilogy of Incommunicability by Michelangelo Antonioni

Translated by Irene Cecchi

In the list of the movies that have been brought back for the last Venice Film Festival there is also La notte (the night) –the second movie of the Trilogia dell’Incomunicabilità– by Michelangelo Antonioni. In this article I will delve into the trilogy.

Michelangelo Antonioni was one of the greatest directors and screenwriters in the Italian and international panorama. Born in Ferrara in 1912, he revolutionized the post-war cinematographic language through a complex and refined visual narration, taking the distance from the classical canons of Italian neorealism. Antonioni brought to life a cinema characterized by introspection and modernity, with a special focus on solitude and existential crisis. In this context the Trilogy of Incommunicability was born, consisting of 3 movies: L’Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961) e L'Eclisse (1962), (The Adventure, The Night, The Eclipse). This is the summit of his career, when he delved into the theme of incommunicability among humans and the sense of loss in contemporary society.

• The context of the Trilogy of Incommunicability

Between the late ‘50s and the beginning of the ‘60s the western world was going through a radical change. The economic boom, the urbanization, the rising consumerism were changing the social structure and the traditional values. In the meantime, the new technologies and the material progress couldn’t satisfy the void inside, the sense of alienation that was increasingly affecting personal relations. In this context, Antonioni explores people’s incapability to connect on an emotional and sentimental level, making the distance between what we say and what we hear tangible.

The term “incommunicability” is often used to describe the feeling of loss and the incapability of creating authentic bonds, especially in family and love relationships. Along the three movies of the trilogy, Antonioni takes the distance from a linear narration and focuses on subtle and ambiguous emotions of the characters, who seem to live in an aesthetically perfect but psychologically desolating world.

1. L'Avventura (1960)

The first movie of the trilogy, The Adventure, is considered to be a turning point for Antoioni’s career and in the history of modern cinema in general. The plot revolves around the mysterious disappearance of Anna (Lea Massari), a young woman who vanishes during a boat trip on a desert island. Her friends, her boyfriend Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti) and Claudia (Monica Vitti) start looking for her but, as time goes by, the research seems to become less important, leaving the stage to the relationship between Sandro and Claudia.

The Adventure is a movie that refuses traditional narrative conventions. Anna’s research may seem the main topic of the story at the beginning but then it becomes only an excuse to explore the emotional void of the characters. Antonioni doesn’t give any solutions or answers, leaving the audience with uncertainty and frustration. The desolate landscapes and the use of silence underline the lack of connection between the characters and the world around them.

At the beginning the critics were harsh but later, The Adventure was recognised to be a masterpiece. The movie broke with the tradition of classical narrative cinema and influenced directors like Michelangelo Frammartino, Wim Wenders and many others. It’s a movie that invites the audience to reflect on the loss of certainties and on the mystery of human relations.

2. La Notte (1961)

The Night, the second movie of the trilogy, goes on exploring incommunicability, this time in a new environment: a marriage in crisis. The story focuses on a day and a night of Giovanni’s life (Marcello Mastroianni), a writer, and his wife Lidia (Jeanne Moreau), who seem to be distant and incapable of communicating. Their marriage is consumed by boredom and indifference so, while Lidia tries to find a meaning to life by strolling in Milan, Giovanni is seduced by various women.

Unlike The Adventure, where Anna’s disappearance is a metaphor of existential void, in The Night the focus is on a concrete reality, the one of a crushing relationship. The movie is a deep reflection on the nature of passion and love, on how these feelings can fade. Antonioni sets this movie in Milan, a modern city rapidly developing, to back the emotional decay of its characters. The geometrical and cold architecture of the city reflects the void inside Giovanni and Lidia.

In The Night, the director leads the audience through a psychological journey where the real drama is not in the visible actions of the characters but in their silence and blank look. The movie suggests that incommunicability doesn't mean only unsaid words, instead, the incapability of getting in touch with our own emotions.

3. L'Eclisse (1962)

The third and last movie of the trilogy, The Eclipse, mark the summit of Antonioni’s reflection on incommunicability. The plot revolves around Vittoria (Monica Vitti), a young woman who, after breaking up, starts a new relationship with Piero (Alain Delon), a stockbroker. But despite the initial attraction, their story doesn’t seem destined to last long.

In The Eclipse, Antonioni brings the theme of incommunicability to another level, even more abstract and symbolic. The movie is characterized by long moments of silence, scenes of urban alienation and an obsession for evironment’s details. The emotional desolation is reflected in the settings, mainly in the finance neighborhood in Rome, with its skyscrapers and hectic pace. The eclipse of the title become a metaphor of the progressive loss of feelings, of desire and eventually of the human identity itself.

The Eclipse closes the trilogy leaving the audience with a sense of uncertainty and unaccomplishment. The conclusion, where the characters seem to vanish, is a symbol of the inevitable separation and isolation. It’s a movie that take even more the distance from the traditional cinema, coming closer to the neat visual art, minimalist and essential.

• The importance of the trilogy in the film industry

The “trilogy of Incommunicability” by Michelangelo Antonioni had a deep and long-lasting impact on contemporary cinema. These three movies challenged the current narrative and style conventions, paving the way to a more introspective and conceptual cinema. The representation of existential void, alienation and incommunicability brought forward issues that would become central in the arthouse cinema of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Moreover, Antonioni revolutionized the use of space and time in cinema. In his movies, the landscapes and ambience are not only a background of the scene but they become integral part of the narrative, reflecting characters’ emotional state. The time is expanded in order to leave room for reflection and subjective interpretation.

Antonioni’s trilogy has been inspirational for directors of the caliber of Stanley Kubrick, Wong Kar-wai, Sofia Coppola and Terrence Malick, who saw in these movies a new way of doing cinema. Nowadays, the trilogy is still studied and admired as one of the best examples of film-making, able to deeply explore the complex human condition.

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