FILM AND SEQUENCING

aimee doyle
3 min readMar 31, 2018

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ANTONIONI, MICHELANGELO — LA NOTTE (1961): A night of encounters wandering in the streets.

Michelangelo Antonioni, 1912–2007 was a modernist film-maker who would use clichéd views of artistic cinema. His film style consists of endings that are not conclusive, as well as mysterious characters and landscape. He takes interest in the psychology of his characters, making his films influential. His filming style of alienation and mystery began with his film “Story of a Love Affair” (1950), of which was about the psychology involved in a relationship.

“La Notte” (1961), Is one of Antonioni’s films of which focuses on visuals and once again, a modernist approach to psychology. It follows the technique of a night of encounters wandering the streets, of which provides a visual of a series of events or a story. The film is about a couple that face their disaffection from each other in a night.

In “La Notte”, Antonioni has exposed a bright living space in a modern apartment, although it is evident that the characters darken the feel of the room (see figure 1). The architecture within the film, specifically the walls, portrays the difficulty for the characters to come closer together. The walls are simple, often blank, metaphorically exposing the inability of expression (see figure 2). The landscape seems to have its own expressions, as if it is a character itself. This is due to the backgrounds way of reflecting the emotions of the characters (see figure 3). The film allows architecture assist in telling the story of a relationship.

Figure 1: La Notte Capture (Apartment). Screenshot by Raoul Suermondt
Figure 2: ‘La Notte’ Capture (Blank Wall). Screenshot by Raoul Suermondt
Figure 3: ‘La Notte’ Capture (emotions of lanscape). Screenshot by Raoul Suermondt

I used an Iphone camera to create a short film displaying the surrounding streets of UTS in the city of Sydney. I have followed the technique used in “La Notte” as my film consists of fragments of parts of the journey between Town Hall to the Blue Building. By doing this I have portrayed not only the architecture styles, but also an isolated feel of the city.

By including short clips of areas and buildings that look bare or have no people within them, I have been able to make the architecture and journey to university feel lonely, as if the area wasn’t usually a very crowded place. The visuals of reflections of people and light off of glass depicts isolation further, as although it is shown that people surround the area, that particular space is avoided, making the architecture feel bare. I have used a black and white clip of simple building of which has a standardised, grid-like design. Although the building is positioned within many surroundings such as buildings and busy roads, from a higher view, it looks as though it is standing alone. This adds a companionless feel to the city tower. The end of the film shows an empty street with a darkened sky and older buildings int he back ground. The clip also shows a bike of which is not being used. This exaggarates alientation through the architectural design of the street as it is dark and all activity has been removed. (See figure 4).

FILM: A LONELY CITY BY AIMEE DOYLE

https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=6Kgx2P

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

  1. Eye Film n.d., Architecture in Michelango Antonioni’s La Notte, viewed 31 March 2018, <https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/film/architecture-in-michelangelo-antonioni’s-la-notte>
  2. Raoul Suermondt n.d., Architecture and Urban Landscape in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Film La Notte, viewed 31 March 2018, <http://www.raoulsuermondt.nl/blog/architecture-and-urban-landscape-in-michelangelo-antonionis-film-la-notte/>
  3. The Criterion Collection 2018, La Notte Michelangelo Antonioni, viewed 31 March 2018, <https://www.criterion.com/films/28111-la-notte>
  4. Pasquale Iannone 2018, Where to Begin With Michelangelo Antonioni, BFI Film Forever, viewed 31 March 2018, <http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/fast-track-fandom-where-begin-michelangelo-antonioni>

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