In contrast to the pilgrimages of L'Avventura, La Notte takes place over one night, in one city. But Antonioni always portrays his characters as wanderers in a strange land; in Eclipse, Alain Delon, in love, will say, "I feel like I'm in a foreign country." In La Notte, that foreign territory is a marriage of ten years. Marcello Mastroianni is the husband, a novelist who feels himself to be all written out; Jeanne Moreau is his wife. While visiting a dying friend, they realize simultaneously that there is very little left between them. The rest of the night is spent in escape and disillusionment, played out against Antonioni's rigorous sense of place and architecture. "Within its time span of less than 24 hours, the film proposes the courses its characters might have taken in the past, points to some of the missed turnings: Jeanne Moreau's walk through Milan is a walk through her own life." (Penelope Huston)