L'eclisse (1962) DVD

Alongside L'Avventura and La Notte, L'Eclisse completes director Michelangelo Antonioni's ambitious 60s trilogy on doomed relationships in a fractured world.
The tale involves a woman, Vittoria (Monica Vitti, The Red Desert), who has just suffered the break-up of an imperfect relationship with a staunch intellectual (Francisco Rabal). Piero (Alain Delon, The Leopard), a brash young stockbroker, casts his romantic gaze in Vittoria's direction and Vittoria's resolve gradually relents, precipitating a tentative affair. Yet their innermost fears play upon them in ways that go against an honest expression of their love - and against a lasting relationship.

The winner of a Special Jury prize at Cannes, this exquisitely performed and photographed drama refines Antonioni's thematic preoccupation with the difficulties of communication and the impossibility of love. A masterpiece of technique and composition, L'Eclisse is a challenging and enigmatic work and a cornerstone of 1960s European cinema.