User Reviews

Most interesting movies come from short stories, as Luchino Visconti clearly demonstrates with his "Le Notti Bianchi". based on a tale by Dostoyevsky. The Russian atmosphere is cleverly transported to an Italian town in winter. The film is enhanced by Giuseppe Rotunno brilliant camera work in a movie that was shot entirely in a studio. In fact, the director salutes Cinecitta in the credits because he must have been completely amazed by the look of the end product.

The story deals with fantasy and reality. One night Mario, a young man, returns to town in a bus. He notices a distressed and beautiful woman who appears to be in the process of committing suicide by jumping from a bridge. Natalia, the young woman is living in despair because a man who conquered her heart has gone away with the promise he will be back in a year's time. Natalia, who at first doesn't respond to Mario, finds in him a kind soul, but her heart belongs to the man she waits for.

Marcello Mastroianni's Mario is fine. He was at one of the most interesting periods of his career when he worked in the picture. The best thing in the movie has to be the scene at the night club where he is trying to get Natalie to dance with him. He makes quite a spectacle of himself dancing to Bill Bailey and the Comets by himself while the other dancing couples admire him.

Maria Schell, coming from another school of acting, seems lost at times, as though overwhelmed by the Italian cast around her. Her Natalia has equal parts of sadness and innocence. Jean Marais, one of the best French actors of his generation is seen as the tenant who steals Natalia's heart. Clara Calamai, who had worked in "Ossessione" with Visconti has some excellent moments as a prostitute.

Nino Rota's atmospheric music blends well with the context of the film. Ultimately the success of "Le Notti Bianche" belongs to Luchino Visconti who saw greatness in the text by Dostoyevsky.

You know, I'm really surprised that I didn't like this movie. It's major theme about the difference in reality and fantasy, along with its stunningly beautiful black and white cinematography, is precisely the sort of thing I look for in film. And yet, I didn't ultimately find it very enjoyable.

It's a very smart and well-written movie. The ways in which the character's aspirations and yearning mix with the reality of the situation is very precise and real, speaking both to the original writer of the short story, Dostoyevsky (whose writing resembles the quiet brooding of the male protagonist in many ways) and Visconti's own skill with directing and camera work. In fact, the very self-aware staging of the movie is what makes it easily a majestic cinematic experience, one that really shouldn't be missed. This movie could be watched and easily stay interesting just paying attention to the lighting of the shots and the composition of the frames.

Indeed, for a film surrounded in all sorts of romance and yearning, it's very detached, often, from the characters. Close-ups are almost nonexistent and for the most part the camera seems most happy to stay far away, with faces barely recognizable within the mist.

It's everything a film goer would love, which is why I find it odd that I didn't much care for the characters. The male protagonist I can understand, and even sympathize with, even as far as his attraction to the female. She, however, is too out of it, completely unreal, almost an idealized notion of something everybody's ideal would be to avoid. In short, I couldn't stand her, or watching her, or anything she did.

There were two very strong moments in the film that, for me, made it worth the time spending to see. The first is the dancing scene, where Marcello Mastrianni lets go and changes from the shy but humble courter to one of those virile, energetic youngsters, showing off and mugging. The other is the very end... of which I won't describe for spoiler purposes, but which ultimately makes Mastrianni's character someone we can all relate to.

Thus, I can honestly say that this film is magnificent, and that many people should go out and watch it. It's beautiful, contains strong acting and directing, has some very poignant scenes, and has a remarkable control over mise-en-scene. I just really don't like it.

--PolarisDiB

Lucino Visconti's "White Nights" (1957) - is an engaging, uplifting, and compelling screen adaptation of Dostoyevsky's short story. I applaud to Visconti's masterful and elegant direction - everything is exquisite in his masterpiece. The settings came from a fairy tale – he moved his heroes to the dream like city that looked very much like Venice – with its canals and bridges. Original story took place in 19th century St. Petersburg – which always has been nicknamed "The Northern Venice". The film is set in the modern time. I was curious to see how Visconti would play the title. "White Nights" is the period of time in the beginning of June when the nights in St. Petersburg are very short. Alexander Pushkin described this time in one of his poems -"The morning rushes to catch the evening only giving darkness two short hours". Visconti's film takes place in the beginning of winter and during the last meeting between the heroes, the snow began to fall, giving the title and to the two final scenes new, deep, and very moving meaning. Is the ending happy or the sad one? I still don't know but what is certain that it is unforgettable. I also want to mention three lead actors who made this story so real, tender, sad, and poetic: Maria Shell as a desperate woman awaiting the return of her fairy tale prince - Jean Cocteau's leading man Jean Marais and lonely, shy clerk Marcello Mastroianni who was happy once if only for a few short minutes.

Notice that the none of the characters in Luciano Visconti's Le Notti Bianche (White Nights) have last names. This is because essentially his film (based on a Dostoevsky short story) is a fairy tale. For a director who's usually referred to as a neo-realist, this film is about as non-neo-realist as you can get.

It's set in an unnamed Italian town and filmed on what looks like a darkly lit sound stage. The film is dialogue-heavy and there's little in the form of "action sequences." Instead we're treated to more of an acting tour de force by the principal protagonists played by the Austrian-Swiss actress Maria Schell and famed Italian heartthrob Marcelo Mastroianni.

Schell plays Maria, a young, lonely woman tied to her elderly, nearly blind grandmother, whom she basically takes care of. Mastroianni is Mario, a newcomer to town who is also quite lonely. When Mario runs into Maria on the street, he ends up making a play for her by rebuffing two macho guys on a motorcycle who seem to be harassing her. She agrees to see him the next evening but at the scheduled hour, she changes her mind and runs away. Mario sees her exiting quickly from the appointed meeting place, catches up with her and can't hide his anger over Maria's decision to cancel the rendezvous.

Eventually Mario continues to press Maria into going out with him but it's clear that she's reluctant to give him a positive response. Maria is a symbol of the side of womanhood that is all emotion. She doesn't look at things objectively and merely gives in to her desires for love. Meanwhile, Mario's initial intentions with Maria are a mixture of a physical interest and companionship. He's extremely hard pressed in understanding Maria's moodiness and uncompromising thirst for romantic love.

The plot thickens when Maria reveals to Mario (in a flashback) that she fell in love with a tall dark stranger who became a boarder in their apartment building. We really find out nothing about this mysterious man who's referred to merely as the "tenant" (Jean Marais) in the film credits. Maria promptly falls in love with this man without even knowing anything about him, and when he reveals that he must go away for a year after getting into some kind of (unknown) trouble, she agrees to wait for him.

Undeterred, Mario continues to press Maria to fall in love with him. Her innate kindness eventually turns him into the mirror image of her-passionate, with a burning desire for romantic love. Not only that, he becomes a better person in that he places her desires above his own and makes it clear that if she chooses the other man, he'll be happy for her.

It's Mario's idea for Maria to send a letter to the former tenant stranger she's been waiting for to find out where he stands after she's received word that he's returned to town. Meanwhile, Maria is growing more fond of Mario but in the back of her mind, she cannot give up on her commitment to the man to whom she pledged her love a year ago,

Two scenes foreshadow the emotional climax. First Maria and Mario dance together in a bar punctuated by the rock and roll music of Bill Haley and the Comets. The scene really goes on for too long but is designed to show how conflicted Maria is as she does indeed have more intense feelings for Mario. It's also designed to set us up for the bittersweet (tragic?) ending.

Then after Maria runs away to meet her beloved, Mario is tricked by a dubious woman he runs into on the street who brings him to a place where he's assaulted and robbed by the woman's confederates.

Maria returns to Mario indicating that her former tenant never showed up to meet her, which had been specified in the letter Mario was supposed to surreptitiously deliver. Mario then confesses he never delivered the letter and he had no intention of doing so, since he coveted Maria from the beginning of their first encounter.

The surprising climax has the love of Maria's life returning and she runs off with him, much to the chagrin of Mario, who was on the verge of making significant headway with Maria. I suppose you could say Maria led Mario on but by the same token, he always knew that she had never given up on the mysterious man to whom she had pledged her love.

It's the old story of "nice guys finish last." The woman is attracted to the "bad boy" (remember the stranger indicated that he had to leave a year ago because he was "in trouble"), leaving a poor schlub like Mario to perhaps wallow in self-pity. Or did he truly accept what happened? Despite Mario's claims to the contrary, you can't help but feel that he was extremely disappointed (and even devastated) by the events that transpired.

I guess one of the themes here is "you can't always get what you want" and there's always going to be disappointment in life when people's desires conflict. There's something about fairy tales that turn me off a bit-my tastes run more toward realism. Clearly the characters here are not fleshed out human beings but represent different types. Nonetheless, if you're willing to accept the parameters and limitations of the narrative, the acting by Schell and Mastroianni is of the highest quality, and you can't help but be impressed by Visconti's vision of romantic love and its complications.

(Flash Review)

The film's harsh, rugged and stone city environment reflects and foreshadows the blossoming romance. A man meets a young woman on the street at night by chance because the woman is crying by herself. Why is she crying? They strike up a friendship. She tells this man about another man she fell in love with who has left her for a year without any communication yet claims he'll return therefore she cries at the same spot every night when he, again, fails to return. This helpful chap says he'll help get communication to her lost love but he also had the hots for her. Will he do the honorable thing by helping her out or will jealousy take hold? Will the original man ever return to meet her at that spot as he claimed? This is pure mid-century Italian style with rich blacks and whites with striking shot framing and the story progresses with the ebbs and flows of the three main character's emotions. The cinematography is outstanding, the story compelling and the pacing is effective for this type of film.