Le notti bianche (1957)

A humble clerk courts a woman who night after night awaits for the return of her lover.

Director:

Luchino Visconti

Writers:

Fyodor Dostoevsky (novel), Suso Cecchi D'Amico (story),

Stars:

Maria Schell, Marcello Mastroianni, Jean Marais

7 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Maria Schell	...	Natalia
Marcello Mastroianni	...	Mario
Jean Marais	...	L'inquilino
Marcella Rovena	...	La padrona della pensione
Maria Zanoli	...	La domestica (as Maria Zanolli)
Elena Fancera	...	La cassiera
Pietro Ceccarelli	...	Un coinvolto nella rissa (as Lanfranco Ceccarelli)
Angelo Galassi	...	Un coinvolto nella rissa
Renato Terra	...	Un coinvolto nella rissa
Corrado Pani	...	Un giovinastro
Dirk Sanders	...	Il ballerino (as Dick Sanders)
Clara Calamai	...	La prostituta

Storyline

A love triangle, the past invades the present. Mario, a shy man new in Livorno, chats up a crying woman on a bridge. She's Natalia, waiting for a lover gone for a year who promised to return. For three nights, Mario accompanies Natalia, assists her, distracts her, dances with her. He falls in love with her. Can he pull Natalia into his arms, away from the past and from love for a man who will probably never return?

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Plot Keywords:

love | dance | unrequited love | italy | prostitution | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

28 May 1961 (USA)

Also Known As:

White Nights

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinematografica Associati (CI.AS.), Rank Film, Vides Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In order to have misty backgrounds by night but a clear view on actors, director Luchino Visconti and director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno could not use mist filters on camera lenses. Instead they used large rolls of tulle hanging from ceiling to the ground on the sets of Cinecitta studios. Putting street lamps just behind, it worked perfectly for the desired effect.

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Connections

Referenced in Zwischen Kino und Konzert - Der Komponist Nino Rota (1993)

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Soundtracks

"Thirteen Women"
Written by Dicky Thompson (as Thomson), Gadda and Lidianni
Decca Records Inc. New York U.S.A.
Performed by Bill Haley and the Comets (as Bill Haley and His Comets)

User Reviews

Beautiful fairy tale from Visconti.

A mythic, Venice-like city is an appropriate backdrop for a film which must have greatly offended European critics at the time who had thought of Visconti as one of the pioneers of the new realism in Italian Cinema (and indeed with Ossessione and La Terra Trema, he was!). But with this film Visconti seems to have changed his idea of what he wants in a film: instead of the pursuance of realism at all costs, we have a dream-like fairy tale about fairy tales.

Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) meets Natalia (Maria Schnell) one night, and is entranced. But as they begin to talk, over a couple of nights, he falls in love with her, and realises that she is already in love with another man. Maria is obsessed with a fairy-tale man (Jean Cocteau's leading man Jean Marais), who up and left her a year ago without explanation and said he would return in a year, and if she still loved him, he would be there for her.

This film is evocative and beautiful - i'd love to see it in a clean theatrical print - especially the snow scenes at the end.

Its a very satisfying cinema experience, and one of Visconti's most beautiful films. 8/10.

Highlights: the dancing scene! Snow scenes are beautiful, but the dancing scene stands head and shoulders above the rest of the movie. Marcello is shy and introverted - he is sitting in a night club with dreamy Natalia. When couples start getting up and busting some very cool moves to Bill Haley and the Comets' Thirteen Women, Mario becomes nervous and starts talking to her about himself, talking around the fact that he's a shy person and doesn't like dancing and physical things... he likes dreaming, solitude... But when he sees how interested Natalia is by another man pulling some mean dance moves, things change. Great scene.