Widely regarded as a classic, Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Eclisse is a remarkably beautiful film, at least in the visual sense. The black and white cinematography is so perfect here that it makes for a film that captivates so strongly with its pictures that it's almost easy to get lost in them.

The movie follows Vittoria (Monica Vitti), a stunningly beautiful woman who works as a translator. She's just ended her long term relationship with her fiancé, Riccardo (Francisco Rabal), his jealousy issues finally becoming more than she could handle. Although she's used to being with someone and feels tinges of loneliness here and there, she socializes with friends and meets a woman just back from Africa who left that continent impressed with how unimportant material possessions were to its inhabitants. From here, Vittoria becomes bored once again, her friends offer her now real substantive connections, and so she heads to the stock exchange to visit her mother (Lilla Brignone). Her broker, Piero (Alain Delon), has done very well for her and things look great until the market does what the market does and her profits soon turn to loss.

While Vittoria's mother is weighing her options and completely ignoring her daughter, Piero and Vittoria begin a relationship together but it seems they are coming at this from different perspectives. Vittoria wants passion, romance and a grand love affair while Pierro seems to want to avoid commitment and really just wants to have a good time. As their relationship evolves, each must try to figure out what really matters to them in life if they're to make a go of it and find happiness together… if that's even possible.

L'Eclisse, interestingly enough, is a beautiful movie full of beautiful people completely disconnected from what should really matter to them in life. This, of course, is the point. Here we see a cast of affluent and well to do characters living the good life in a beautiful city in a beautiful country and yet, as we know, money can't buy happiness. Nowhere is this made more obvious than with the character of Vittioria. She's stunning, gorgeous, and in many ways she has it all, but she needs the human connection to really feel fulfilled. Whether or not she'll find this with the incredibly handsome and completely charming Piero is the core of the film's ruminations on life, love and fulfillment and it's here that the director obviously wants us to get caught up in the drama. And we do. The fact that all of this loneliness and personal distance is captured with such remarkable imagery makes the film entirely watchable, never dull, while the performances are anchored as such that we never doubt the performers in their roles.

The black and white cinematography somehow manages to communicate the picture's atmosphere more effectively than it probably would if it had been made in color. The different shades of contrast that make up the picture reflect the mood explored in Antonioni's examination of the characters in the picture, somehow making their jadedness and cynicism all the more real. As they go about their lives, surrounded by human activity, a constant in the big city, we feel their need to remove themselves from the endlessness of ‘the daily grind.' While sometimes it is hard to connect with Vittoria and Piero on a personal level, the film definitely works in how it asks the audience to find in themselves a sense of purpose. So in that regard, it almost doesn't matter if we feel for our leads that much or not. The end result is an interesting take on life, love and purpose and how all that intertwines to make (or not) the most out of human existence.

Video:

L'Eclisse looks great on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection, presented here in 1.85.1 widescreen in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer. The black and white picture shows excellent contrast and strong fine detail throughout the film. While grain is obvious throughout the picture, as it should be, there isn't much in the way of actual print damage to complain about while black levels stay strong, deep and solid for the duration of the picture. Texture looks good and close up shots really show off how much depth there is to the image. There are no obvious issues with compression artifacts nor are there any problems with edge enhancement. All in all, this is a very strong, film-like transfer that presents this beautifully shot film in excellent condition.