la cupola

ARCHITECTURE architect DANTE BINI photography by VALERIE SADOUN all images michelangelo antonioni and monica vitti’s house in sardinia one of the most beautiful love affairs of italian cinema: director michelangelo antonioni fell for emerging star monica vitti in the late ’50s. they quickly became a celebrity couple, living the dolce vita and making three masterpieces together: l’avventura (1960), la notte (1961), and l’eclisse (1962). while working on their new film, il deserto rosso (1964), the couple was offered a piece of land on the costa paradiso in northern sardinia. antonioni commissioned the avant-garde italian architect dante bini to build a concrete clifftop love bubble overlooking the sea of sardinia, but the relationship died before construction was completed. the isolated, abandoned dome stands as a memento mori of their short-lived affair. it also evokes the impossibility of love, which antonioni tried to capture by filming a woman who always seems to…