White Nights (1957 film)

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Le notti bianche
ItalianLe notti bianche
Directed byLuchino Visconti
Screenplay bySuso Cecchi d'Amico
Luchino Visconti
Based onWhite Nights
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Produced byFranco Cristaldi
StarringMaria Schell
Marcello Mastroianni
Jean Marais
Clara Calamai
CinematographyGiuseppe Rotunno
Edited byMario Serandrei
Music byNino Rota
Production
companies
Cinematografica Associati
Intermondia Films
Vides Cinematografica
Cinecittà
Distributed byThe Rank Organisation
Release date
    • 6 September 1957 (Venice)
    • 14 November 1957 (Italy)
    • 8 May 1958 (France)
Running time
102 minutes
CountriesItaly
France
LanguageItalian
Box office511,922 admissions (France)[1]

White Nights (Italian: Le notti bianche, French: Nuits blanches) is a 1957 romantic drama film directed by Luchino Visconti, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1848 short story of the same name. It was written for the screen by Visconti and Suso Cecchi d'Amico, and stars Maria Schell, Marcello Mastroianni, and Jean Marais.[2] The film received positive reviews from critics and audiences, and won the Silver Lion at the 18th Venice International Film Festival.[3]

Plot[edit]

Late one winter night in downtown Livorno,[4] a young man named Mario, who is new in town, sees a young woman named Natalia crying on a small bridge over a canal. When she sees Mario looking at her, Natalia runs away and almost gets struck by a motorcycle. The motorcyclists hit on Natalia, but Mario shoos them away and attempts to strike up a conversation with her. She does not say much, but listens politely, and then says Mario can walk her home. After agreeing to meet Mario the following night, Natalia returns to the bridge.

When Mario spots Natalia the next night, she initially runs away from him, explaining that she did not want him to think she was an easy woman for arranging to meet a strange man. She then explains that she is waiting for someone on the bridge, but invites Mario to keep her company while she waits, and tells her story to him. Both of her parents, separately, ran off, leaving her with her protective, nearly-blind grandmother. When a dashing man rented a room in her grandmother's house, they eventually fell in love, but then he left suddenly, promising to return in one year. The year is up, so, although she hasn't seen or heard from the tenant since he left, Natalia has begun to sneak out at night to wait for him on the bridge.

Mario tells Natalia she is being naive, but she says the tenant is back in town, she just does not want to make the first move. When Mario suggests she write the tenant a letter, she hands one to him that she has already written, and he agrees to deliver it. Natalia goes home, and a moody Mario tears up the letter and throws it in the canal.

In the morning, Mario debates whether he should feel remorse for what he has done before deciding to go out that night to have fun. Walking around town, he sees Natalia, and this time he is the one who runs away. She notices him, however, and, giddy, says she has spent the whole day impatiently waiting until ten o'clock to discover if the tenant will arrive for their rendezvous. Mario invites Natalia to go to a club to pass the time, and they dance until she learns it is past ten, at which point she runs to the bridge and tells Mario to leave so the tenant does not see him with her.

Mario walks off and, after getting beaten up due to a misunderstanding with a prostitute, winds up back by the bridge. Natalia tells him the tenant did not show up, and Mario admits he did not deliver the letter. To his surprise, Natalia thanks Mario for sparing her from being humiliated and says she is ready to forget the tenant. Overjoyed, Mario tells Natalia he loves her, and she responds that she thinks she could grow to love him some day, but asks him to be patient. As they wander around town, it begins to snow, and they both get caught up in the romance of the situation, until they return to the bridge and Natalia recognizes the man standing on it as the tenant.

Natalia runs over to the man and then returns to Mario to tell him that she realizes she still loves the tenant. Mario apologizes for trying to make her doubt her love and thanks her for the moment of happiness she brought him. An ecstatic Natalia walks away with the tenant, and Mario is left to wander the streets alone.

Cast[edit]

Adaptation[edit]

According to academic Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, "In turning the Dostoevsky story into a film, Visconti got rid of the first-person narration and made the girl less of an innocent and, in fact, at times something of a hysteric and a tease. In the course of these changes, he also made the ending sadder. In the story, the narrator is allowed a little coda, in which he thanks the girl for the moment of happiness she has brought him. In the film, the hero is left alone, befriending the same stray dog he met at the beginning, back at square one, with no sense that the love he briefly felt has transformed him in any way."[5]

Production[edit]

Visconti cast Maria Schell after meeting her at film festival at which he was a juror. Although he originally planned to dub her voice with that of an Italian actress, as was the standard practice at the time for foreign actors in Italian films, he was impressed when she learned all of her dialogue in Italian, and let her loop her own lines. However, French actor Jean Marais was dubbed by Giorgio Albertazzi.

The entire film was shot on a soundstage at Cinecittà Studios in Rome on an elaborate set that recreated the streets, stores, waterways, and monuments of Livorno.[6][4] To achieve the misty nighttime atmosphere of the film while maintaining a clear view of the actors, Visconti and cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, instead of using filters on the camera lenses, hung large rolls of tulle from the ceiling to the ground on the sets and put street lamps just behind the tulle.

Release[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, White Nights has an 88% approval rating based on 8 reviews, with an average score of 8.3/10.[7]

Accolades[edit]

Year Award Category Nominee Result
1957 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Luchino Visconti Lost to Satyajit Ray for Aparajito
Silver Lion Won
1958 Cahiers du Cinéma's Top 10 List Best Film 3rd place
Nastro d'Argento Best Director Lost to Federico Fellini for Nights of Cabiria
Best Producer Franco Cristaldi Lost to Dino De Laurentiis for Nights of Cabiria
Best Screenplay Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi d'Amico Lost to Ugo Pirro, Elio Petri for We Still Kill the Old Way
Best Actor Marcello Mastroianni Won
Best Score Nino Rota Won
Best Cinematography Giuseppe Rotunno Lost to Gianni Di Venanzo for Il Grido
Best Production Design Mario Chiari, Mario Garbuglia Won
Bambi Award Best International Actor Jean Marais Lost to Tony Curtis for Sweet Smell of Success
1960 Sant Jordi Award Best Foreign Director Luchino Visconti Won
Best Foreign Screenplay Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi D'Amico Won

Legacy[edit]

The 2008 American film Two Lovers, though not an adaptation, was inspired by the short story as well as Visconti's film.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Box Office Figures for Jean Marais films". Box Office Story.
  2. ^ "NY Times: White Nights". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Baseline & All Movie Guide. 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-03-10. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
  3. ^ Le notti bianche, retrieved 2021-07-22
  4. ^ a b "White Nights". Film at Lincoln Center. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  5. ^ Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey. "Le notti bianche". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  6. ^ Melville, David. "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland – Luchino Visconti and White Nights – Senses of Cinema". Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  7. ^ White Nights (1957), retrieved 2021-07-22
  8. ^ "Two Lovers: James Gray Interview". At the Movies. June 3, 2009. Archived from the original on August 23, 2009. Retrieved August 10, 2009.

External links[edit]