27 February 2008

A legendary film from a legendary director, the 1961 La Notte (The Night) has long been acclaimed one of the great works of 60s cinema and is a key film in the oeuvre of Michaelangelo Antonioni, he of such films as L'avventura, L'eclisse, The Red Desert, Blowup, Zabriski Point and The Passenger.

Two giants of film acting – Marcello Mastroianni (La dolce vita, 8 1/2) and Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim, Bay of Angels) – star as a married couple living in crisis. He is a renowned author and "public intellectual," she is "the wife." Over the course of one day and one night, the pair re-examine their emotional bonds and grapple with the question of whether love and communication are even possible in a world built out of profligate idylls and sexual hysteria. Photographed in rapturous black-and-white by the great Gianni di Venanzo (8 1/2, Giulietta degli spiriti), La notte presents the beauty of seduction, then asks: "When did this occur – this seduction of Beauty?"

La Notte has been announced by Eureka! for UK DVD release in March under the Masters of Cinema banner with the following features:

• New restoration of the film in its original 1.75:1 aspect ratio with previously censored sequences restored for the first time and anamorphically encoded;
• New and improved English subtitles;
• Original Italian theatrical trailer;
• 40-page booklet with a new essay by film-critic and scholar Brad Stevens, and the transcript of a lengthy Q&A conducted in 1961 with Antonioni upon the film's release.

The release date is 24th March 2008 at the RRP of £19.99.