Rating: 
Summary: Yes, the DVD IS watchable
Review: Several respondents here have criticized the transfer quality, citing cropping, hisses, wobbling, etc. Most of the "cropping" is attributable to television overscan, and you notice it more on this DVD because Antonioni makes such deft and unusual use of the far edges of the screen. There are DVD players available which can help compensate for overscanning, a problem originating from standard television sets and not this particular DVD. Regarding hisses, those recurring, distant industrial sounds you hear are on the original soundtrack. Undoubtedly they are meant to serve an emotional mood. One respondent reports that the image is so jumpy he couldn't watch the film; I simply didn't have the same viewing experience. A number of Criterion releases have more image wobble than this one. In fact, I'm impressed by the great sound and picture quality of this DVD. It's a huge improvement over the muddy version which Bravo used to broadcast, and notably cleaner than theatrical prints available in the US in the 1990s. While not perfect, this DVD delivers the aural and visual clarity which Antonioni deserves.
Rating:
Summary: the artist
Review: Sometimes a movie is so good and thought provoking that it stays with you long after it is over and lingers in your mind teasing you as if there were still doors left to be opened - and it must be watched again. I found this true of 'La Notte' - my favorite Antonioni movie. It was so striking that the night I watched it I had several dreams relating to it once I fell asleep.
As far as its construction - the movie to me appears flawless. Every shot is a beautiful composition and your eyes are drawn to objects every bit as much as people. Antonioni seems to have a relationship with space and objects far superior to most directors - and one gets the feeling that this man could also be a painter.
The acting in the film is nice and understated. Jeanne Moreau is easy to identify with and Marcello is very much at ease in one of his best film roles. I am still just in awe of this picture and I feel that I may have missed something! Time to pull out the dvd and watch it again!!
Rating:
Summary: Antonioni's best.
Review: The camera work and direction of this film are awe-inspiring. The scenes with Mastroianni entering the psycho-chick's hospital room, shot against the completely white wall, and the overhead shot of Moreau pulling up in the car are two of the best visual shots I can think of in any movie, anywhere! A film that held my attention from start to finish (rare for an Antonioni flick), I think the two leads helped out a lot too, as Antonioni usually used lesser known stars, but picked two top notch names for this one. Blow-Up would have been his best (and the best film in movie history) had it only tied up the murder mystery plot; so this is the top Antonioni pic.
Rating:
Summary: Antonioni's Masterpiece
Review: This film may be Antonioni's masterpiece. It has certainly gained in stature in my personal estimation since I first experienced it many years ago. Made when Antonioni was flush with the success and acclaim accorded L'avventura ("The Affair"),
it strikes one as best representative of the director's vision at the time of this trilogy or tetrology of films. Moreau's performance is surely one of her most luminescent. For what it's worth, classicist and Italian film and literature scholar, William Arrowsmith, felt this was Antonioni's finest.
Rating:
Summary: powerful
Review: This is a very powerful film. It is slow-paced, and it has very good dialogues. The film is rather tight and intense, it has few accidental scenes, everything from the visit of a dying friend's hospital ward to the culminating self-probings and self-confessions after the party equally captured my attention and made me think about what I saw as I was "living" it along with the protagonists. When the film was over, I was tired, but at the same time very happy about having been to do all this work. "La Notte" is a film about decaying values of the wealthy but it is also about decaying relationships in general, about the necessity to think and to be honest to one another, to be responsible and serious. I highly recommend everyone to see this film and spend some time on it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Film, Annoying DVD
Review: This is truly a wonderful film. Moreau, Mastroianni and Vitti are perfect in Antonioni's expression of banality and dispassion in the modern age. Those put off by Antonioni's work, due to vagueness and slow pacing, will find "La Notte" extremely approachable. Also, I was amazed to how similar "La Notte" is to Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." The portraying of the emptiness of the main characters marriage not through dialog but imagery, the story structure, the wealthy friends party (end of "La Notte," beginning of "EWS"), the personal odysseys Moreau and Mastroianni venture on to spark up passion in their lives are all reminiscent of Kubrick's last film. I haven't heard of Kubrick being influence by Antonioni or not, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.Being that "La Notte" is such a visual treat, it is frustrating that the Fox Lorber DVD is so poorly put together. It skips, the audio often doesn't sync up with the actors mouths, there is a hiss that keeps on going on and off, and there are many scratches and smudges throughout. Oh well. Hopefully Criterion will pick this one up and do to "La Notte" what they did for "L'Avventura." That is the treatment this film deserves.
Rating:
Summary: Another Antonioni Masterpiece
Review: While "L'Avventura" was a film about mystery, and about the discovery of mystery in our lives, this follow-up is darker, stressing the loss of mystery--along with the loss of love and of value in life. Like "L'Avventura," it's supremely beautiful to look at, and it also focuses on the Italian upper-class world of the early 60s. Here, Marcello Mastroianni plays a celebrated novelist who's in the process of burning out, and Jeanne Moreau is his wife--who's burning out too, but unlike him, she's aware of it. She (and he, to a lesser extent) embarks on a sort of odyssey of self-discovery in the course of a day and night; among the many brilliant episodes is a long night party at the home of a millionaire (who, we learn, "collects" intellectuals such as the novelist, and then seeks to buy them). The millionaire's speeches are brilliantly written, as he gradually caricatures himself, and as he implicates the intelligentsia in the process of emptying that the modern world is rapidly accomplishing. Moreau herself has never been more expressive--well, maybe in "Jules and Jim"--and Mastroianni is also at his best. As if that pairing weren't enough, about two-thirds of the way through we meet the magnificent Monica Vitti, playing the 18-year-old daughter of the millionaire, and giving endless shadings to her character--as she usually does. The DVD is good, though not as good as it might have been. The film is letterboxed, and the image is good and crisp. The subtitles are good, but often bits of dialogue aren't translated, especially bits in the party scenes. There are very few extras, but the filmographies are good. The DVD promises weblinks, but the main link is to the Internet Movie Database, which anybody likely to watch this film will probably have bookmarked long ago. Still, for anyone interested in Antonioni, or in the greatest films of the era, this is well worth the purchase price.
Rating:
Summary: Another Antonioni Masterpiece
Review: While "L'Avventura" was a film about mystery, and about the discovery of mystery in our lives, this follow-up is darker, stressing the loss of mystery--along with the loss of love and of value in life. Like "L'Avventura," it's supremely beautiful to look at, and it also focuses on the Italian upper-class world of the early 60s. Here, Marcello Mastroianni plays a celebrated novelist who's in the process of burning out, and Jeanne Moreau is his wife--who's burning out too, but unlike him, she's aware of it. She (and he, to a lesser extent) embarks on a sort of odyssey of self-discovery in the course of a day and night; among the many brilliant episodes is a long night party at the home of a millionaire (who, we learn, "collects" intellectuals such as the novelist, and then seeks to buy them). The millionaire's speeches are brilliantly written, as he gradually caricatures himself, and as he implicates the intelligentsia in the process of emptying that the modern world is rapidly accomplishing. Moreau herself has never been more expressive--well, maybe in "Jules and Jim"--and Mastroianni is also at his best. As if that pairing weren't enough, about two-thirds of the way through we meet the magnificent Monica Vitti, playing the 18-year-old daughter of the millionaire, and giving endless shadings to her character--as she usually does. The DVD is good, though not as good as it might have been. The film is letterboxed, and the image is good and crisp. The subtitles are good, but often bits of dialogue aren't translated, especially bits in the party scenes. There are very few extras, but the filmographies are good. The DVD promises weblinks, but the main link is to the Internet Movie Database, which anybody likely to watch this film will probably have bookmarked long ago. Still, for anyone interested in Antonioni, or in the greatest films of the era, this is well worth the purchase price.
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