La Notte

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After directing a tragic movie ‘Il Grido’ in 1957 based on sad demise of man woman relationship in the contemporary society, legendary Italian director ‘Michelangelo Antonio’ went onto comment further on similar scenario in his another remarkable movie ‘La Notte’ directed in 1961 with main leads played by Marcello Mastroianni (remember Fellini’s ‘8 ½’, ‘La Dolce Vita’), Jeanne Moreau, Monica Vitti and Bernhard Wicki. The movie raises numerous questions on the limits and do’s and don’ts in a man woman relationship while dealing with the concept delicately opening everything layer by layer.

‘La Notte’ begins with Giovanni Pontano who is a famous writer in Milan and his wife Lydia visiting their terminally ill old friend Tommaso Garani in a hospital. The short visit gives an indication about the obvious age old inclination of Tommaso Garani for Giovanni’s wife Lydia. In the hospital the couple also encounters a strange but very beautiful and young, female patient admitted next to Tommaso’s room. The young female drags Giovanni into her room and indulges him in a violent sexual intercourse just when the nurses enter and beat her up. Dazzled by the girl’s strange reaction, Giovanni narrates the entire incident to Lydia including how he felt helpless reacting in that situation. Thereafter, Giovanni goes to a party for the release of his latest book and his wife visits the place where she lived many years ago. Lydia calls Giovanni from the place and tells him to pick her up. The incident depicts the mutual understanding and beauty of their relationship even after so many years of their being together. In the night, they go to a night-club, and later to a party in the mansion of the tycoon Mr. Gherardini. Along the night, Giovanni flirts with Valentina Gherardini, the daughter of the host, and then he receives a proposal to work for him in the area of communication and write the history of his company. Lydia observes her husband getting fascinated towards the lonely gal in the party and also kissing her subsequently. This disturbs Lydia and she goes onto flirting with a playboy Roberto who seems interested in her from the beginning. Roberto begins advancing towards her but she resists him eventually. In the meanwhile, Valentina recites her poetry to Giovanni and also confesses about her loneliness. Both of them are further drawn to each other as intellectual companions. Lydia returns to the party and indulges in a heart to heart conversation with Valentina when Giovanni arrives and both of them decide to return home.

Giovanni unable to conceal his feelings for Valentina even in front of Lydia, bids her goodbye. After what happened at the party, Giovanni tells Lydia about the offer he received from Valentina’s father. Lydia also discloses Giovanni about Tommaso’s intentions for her since the very beginning and how he used to make her feel precious. She also admits about her die hard feelings for Giovanni since the day she knew him also including how they have changed since what happened at the party. Giovanni apologizes her and begins kissing and making love to her in atonement. The movie ends with both of them making love on the ground as if nothing else is left between them.

The movie attempts to explore several questions about man woman relationship. Is it immoral to love somebody? And is it immoral to love somebody knowing that you are married or belong to somebody else? If it is immoral to love so is it moral to resist love when it comes to you itself? Is it feasible to justify love and attraction? Is it possible to love two people at one time? Is it possible to be attracted towards somebody knowing that your attraction is going to create ripples in your own personal life? Are we there to form new relationships or are we there to confine them? What happens when bonding occurs naturally? How far do man and woman have the right to indulge in each other’s life? How far are they responsible for each other? Who should decide the limits? And what should be done if the limits are crossed? What should be the punishment? And who should decide it? The director leaves it to the viewer to interpret the movie and answer these questions.

The greatest harm done to human civilization has been structuring love and building an empire of other worthless structures around it. Love should not be structured and if structured it doesn’t remain love. It begins to rot and emanate odors when you try and confine it accordingly. Love is not an entity. It is a beautiful immense canvass on which one can paint anything and anybody he likes. Love can never be immoral. It is always beautiful no matter who loves and whom he loves. You cannot time it. And you cannot decide it too. One cannot force it though one may try to demolish it. Love is always just since it originates from somewhere which is beyond the approach of human understanding. So one cannot justify it, though one may try to mar it using certain words.

Another greatest harm done has been deciding man woman relationship on the basis of morality and limiting it by the institution of marriage. The modern civilizations have reduced the naturally polygamous (or –androus) humans into a monogamous institution further locking it with a code of morality. If somebody tries break the code he is labeled as immoral. Things have been simplified to the limit. Man has been made the puppet of moral schools of the society. Boundaries have been pre-determined. And human bondings have already been pre-decided and pre-labelled using very few words. Any possibility of emergence of a new form of relationship has been theoretically and practically eliminated by the decision makers.

The movie depicts how a relationship having deeper intellectual and spiritual overtones undergoes a radical diminution to a purely physical level when the monogamous code is unknowingly deceived by the people involved. The movie demonstrates how easier it has become to pull apart the threads of human relationships. This is the consequence of simplifying the intricate matters based upon very subtle and elusive human understanding and mutual attraction merely to the level of concrete and suitable justification. This is the result of civilizing everything along the way without foreseeing the violent consequences ahead.

La Notte is a landmark creation in the history of Italian as well as world cinema and is neo-realism at its best. The culmination of the movie in a physical intercourse between the two protagonists reminds me of similar ending in a Bengali movie ‘Charulata’ based upon the marital complacency in the life of a lonely housewife, another masterpiece of world cinema directed by Satyajit Ray, both suggesting that the things cannot be mended from now on. ‘La Notte’ along with ‘Il Grido’ and ‘Il Deserto Rosso’, all directed by Michelangelo Antonio, would remain notable in the history of cinema to comment upon very significant theme of man woman relationship in the contemporary society.

RIHAEE...

“The men of the village migrate to the city to work as craftsmen and artisans. They return once in three or four years to settle land disputes, marry or impregnate their wives. In cities cheap movies and visits to prostitutes relieve them of their frustrations but what about the women? Left alone to fend for themselves, eking out a living from the stony barren soil and tending to their children and old folk. When a gay Lothario lands in the village from Dubai, the cat is among the pigeons. He seduces a number of lonely women. When Taku, one of them, pregnant with his child decides to have the child, there is consternation. Rihaee (liberation) comes when an old woman, leads the village women to convince the men folk of their loneliness and needs and their wants.”

This is a synopsis of the movie ‘Rihaee’ starring Naseerudin Shah, Vinod khanna, Hema Malini, Neena Gupta, Rima Lagoo, Ila Arun, Mohan Agashe, Pallavi Joshi and many other great actors of parallel cinema. The movie was a random pick from an average video library of my town. I didn’t read the synopsis at the time I chose to buy it. What engrossed me was the star cast of the movie and of course the title of the movie which means freedom or liberation. But I read it before watching the movie and felt that I had made a good choice. And the viewing further substantiated my decision.
The movie is special, riveting, rebellious, and not the usual run of the mill type venture. The movie has taken leaps to raise the bar and establish new standards in the journey of Indian cinema. Arunaraje, the director of the movie has certainly made a very brave attempt to explore the starving sexuality of a group of lonely women and feed it with some solutions. One may call it a half hearted and incomplete attempt but the fact remains that it is an honest and tough attempt to begin with.
The movie highlights the core problem, the consequences, the repercussions and a possible solution for the turbulence. Here are few points which I gathered from the movie and feel that should be discussed in length.
•The men work in the city. Their women, left behind in the village, are lonely, sexually frustrated and desperate, amidst the ruthless living and working conditions of their place.
•The culturally backward and technologically deficient society in the village leaves them with nothing but groaning sexuality.
•Many a times, being promiscuous is the only option they have, to feed their sexual hunger and poverty, even if it is at the cost of their spiritual and individual integrity.
•Even the most honest and independent women of the village like Taku (played by Hema Malini) has no alternative left other than drooping down to the level of a concubine and get pregnant.
•But it’s a short treat. The men return to the village, celebrate the sexual extravaganza with their wives and sleep to peace. The tension results when Taku’s promiscuity and illegitimate pregnancy is revealed to her husband.
•Men can be dishonest and do whatever they want but cannot accept the same from the other sex, even if the circumstances explained are unavoidable and real.
•The rules are different. The verdicts are different. For both the sexes. Especially when sexuality is a matter of concern.
•A woman does have same instincts and similar sexual desire as a man does. If a man can be promiscuous, a woman can be promiscuous too, to satisfy her soul and desires of her flesh.
•Probably it’s the only movie to prescribe promiscuity a solution for the whole community, a community which has suffered a moral and spiritual disintegration in the heat of circumstances.
•The society has changed, people have changed, so has changed their morals and standards. Intelligence lies not only in accepting the change but also being the change we see around us.
•But a question arises. Can a single, wild, forceful penetration help a woman who is soiled with filth of loneliness and boredom for decades? May be it can help her someway. We shouldn’t be judgmental. But even the most forceful penetration would only provide some warmth to the upper layers of wound without tickling the core. The wound is deep, very deep. And the treatment is long, very long. The whole process is nothing but a wait and watch issue. The patient is critical. The prognosis is poor. Death knocks the door every second. Ghosts stare through the windows with mouths wide open. May the suffering ends soon.
•The things need to be addressed with an open mind. The social scenarios have changed and we are left with only few options. May be we would need to start from scratch, devise new methodology, and establish new norms. May be we need to do nothing at all. But we must consider this a warning, come out of our shelters and wait for the earthquake. Old structures would collapse. And new ones would have to be constructed.
•May be out of some womb, a Draupadi is born again…