Eclipse / L'Eclisse (1962)

Millions of Americans poured out yesterday onto the parks and the streets to watch the magnificent solar eclipse. Everyone was excited to see how the moon blocks the sun for some minutes. It is a rare event, with the last total eclipse crossing the US recorded on June 8, 1918. Despite their rarity, they are a well-known cosmic phenomenon these days.

However, few know that Eclipse or in its Italian version, L’eclisse, is also the name of an obscure cinematic masterpiece. It was made in 1962 by no one less than the brilliant Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni and though quite forgotten, it is a movie that is worth discovering.

The movie casts Monica Vitti and Alain Delon as the main cast, Vittoria and Piero. They are the lovers whose romance unfolds in the movie and yet, this is a love story unlike any other you might have read or watched. The movie starts not with Vittoria and Piero but with Vittoria and her boyfriend, Riccardo, in a sitting room. They don’t talk. They are silent. Vittoria is walking in the room while Piero is sitting and simply gazing at her. The sitting room seems to be very stuffy and we can feel something heavy is weighing on the shoulders of both characters. We don’t know exactly what it is, but the relationship seems to be on the cusp of the breakdown and this enclosed, curtained room symbolizes the stifling relationship they are trapped in. Significantly though, Vittoria starts putting aside the curtains. She is looking for some fresh air outside this relationship.

Eventually, Vittoria says goodbye to Riccardo and the movie follows her on the next day when she comes to see her mom in the stock market. She meets Piero here as one of the traders. There is nothing romantic in this first encounter and as the movie progresses, Piero is shown to be an aggressive man of business. An unimpressed and rather bored Vittoria leaves the stock market.

After this initial introduction of the main characters, the movie meanders through a soiree of Vittoria and other friends dancing, then a fun ride on a vintage aeroplane before returning to the stock market. The movie is in no hurry to start the romance between the main characters. The average moviegoer will find these sequences irrelevant and a bit boring. In fact, we get halfway through the movie and no solid action has started yet. But there are all for good reasons and once the movie ends, they all make perfect sense in the retrospect. The stock market, its ambience, and the relationship among the trader have a pivotal importance in this movie.

However, once the movie does come down to the romantic story, it portrays a passionate, fun, and beautiful relationship between Vittoria and Piero. They enjoy being with each other but at one point Vittoria stops responding to Piero's questions about herself, saying: "Why do we ask so many questions? Two people shouldn't know each other too well if they want to fall in love. But then maybe then shouldn't fall in love at all." Despite such quotations, the movie registers a pleasurable love relationship between the two characters.

With a marked difference from other romances, L'eclisse does not become a totally romantic movie once the relationship between Piero and Vittoria becomes more serious. As we see their relationship unfold on the screen, other events happen seamlessly along the story, often coming back to the initial sequences and expanding on them. However, in the final analysis, it is the romance that drives the story forward and brings the movie to a conclusion.

How this relationship develops, culminates, and brings down the whole movie to an end is what sets L’eclisse apart from all the other similar movies. It is totally unexpected, magical, and yet in hindsight, absolutely natural. For a movie that started in silence, it is only apt to end in silence and indeed the last seven minutes or so of this movie unfolds in total silence. These last moments elevate the romance and all the other former sequences onto a much grander plateau of meaning which will make the movie one of the most unforgettable movies you will ever see in your life.

Watching L’eclisse will be as amazing as watching the real solar eclipse.