O Eclipse

Antonioni's 'L'Eclisse' depicts the emptiness and and meaningless of life in the post-Second World War world under the shadow of the nuclear threat. This is represented by the mushroom shaped water-tower looming outside the window in the film's early sequences, and is referred to again in newspaper headlines towards the end of the film. This film was made in 1962, a year after the Berlin crisis, and in the year of the Cuba crisis when we came very close to nuclear war between the USA and the USSR.

The film also depicts the greed of capitalism, as shown in the mad, chaotic scenes in the Rome Stock Exchange and the obsessive gambling of the mother character.

The location, with distant shots of Benito Mussolini's EUR buildings on the outskirts of Rome, also suggest a meaningless, empty, soulless Brave New World all overshadowed by the nuclear threat, where people suffer loneliness and depression and feel unable to make long-term commitments.