The trilogy Bret Easton Ellis called “one of the great achievements of 20th-century film”
The literary works of Bret Easton Ellis have polarised readers for years now, especially because of the way in which novels like Less than Zero and American Psycho function with the public consciousness. While Ellis has always maintained that he is engaging in satire, his apathetic portraits of violence and social decadence have been idolised by many who never realised the satirical frameworks supporting Ellis’ narratives.
While Ellis undoubtedly has a lot of predecessors when it comes to literature, he has often drawn from cinema as well. Frequently citing the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Terrence Malick, and Jonathan Demme as primary sources of inspiration, Ellis’ taste in cinema has been interesting for fans to dive into. In an interview dedicated to his favourite movies, the author even revealed that it took a while for him to come around to the unique art of David Lynch.
Ellis said: “David Lynch’s movie infuriated me when I first watched it in an empty theatre during its initial run in October of 2001 in New York. But with each subsequent viewing, it grows richer, more complex, and more mysterious. It surpasses Contempt as the most tragic, agonizing film about movies and Hollywood subsuming souls with promises impossible to keep. Naomi Watts, as the actress who never made it, has never been better.”
One particular addition to his selection of personal favourites is Michelangelo Antonioni’s famous “trilogy on modernity and its discontents”. Stylistically mesmerising and concerned with the overwhelming ennui of the upper socioeconomic stratum, direct associations can be drawn between masterpieces like L’Avventura and La Notte and Ellis’ own depictions of the disillusionment of the privileged in novels such as The Rules of Attraction. However, the movie he singled out from the trilogy was none other than L’Eclisse.
The author commented: “A dice roll — it could have been L’avventura or La Notte, but I rewatched this recently and was blown away by Antonioni’s mastery and control, and his epic nihilistic vision of upper-middle-class despair is sweeping and unrivalled. Alain Delon and Monica Vitti are the most gorgeous couple in ’60s international cinema — embalmed and yet completely alive. The trilogy is one of the great achievements in 20th-century film.”
Taking the philosophical concerns of the previous entries in the trilogy to their logical conclusion, Antonioni’s daring work stars Monica Vitti as a young woman who begins an affair with Alain Delon’s stockbroker. Incorporating existentialism into its cinematic language, L’Eclisse’s narrative structure operates like visual poetry.
Watch the trailer below.
