Le Notti Bianche [White Nights] **** (1957, Maria Schell, Marcello Mastroianni, Jean Marais) – Classic Movie Review 5718

Writer-director Luchino Visconti adapts the 1848 love triangle short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky in one of his finest, most subtle, rewarding and haunting films. The actors give delicate, subtle performances and help him to to make a lot out of the story and theme of the past invading the present.

Marcello Mastroianni stars as Mario, a shy, humble clerk in the Italian town of Livorno, who meets and courts Natalia (Maria Schell), a woman he finds crying on a bridge. Night after night Mario accompanies Natalia as she waits for the return of her lover (Jean Marais also stars as the tenant) gone for a year. He promised to return but she doesn’t know whether he will.

Mario is new in town but has got to know this area of it, though not the people, whereas Maria’s grandmother has not allowed her to see it, living in isolation. Both however are linked by their loneliness.

Visconti tweaks the Dostoevsky original by eliminating the story’ first person narration and making Natalia less of an innocent. Nino Rota’s ideal score is an obvious asset.

Viennese actress Schell (1926–2005) learned and spoke all her lines in Italian, performing it so well it was agreed not to dub her voice by an Italian actress.

Director of photography Giuseppe Rotunno put street lamps just behind large rolls of tulle hanging from the ceiling to the ground on the sets of Cinecittá studios. This worked perfectly to conjure up misty backgrounds by night.

Also in the cast are Marcella Rovena as Landlady, Maria Zanoli as Maid, Elena Fancera as cashier, Lanfranco Ceccarelli, Angelo Galassi, Renato Terra, Corrado Pani, Dirk Sanders as Dancer and Clara Calamai as Prostitute.

James Gray’s Two Lovers (2009) is a loose remake.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5718

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