A new 4K restoration of Luchino Visconti’s achingly romantic 1957 masterwork White Nights is now playing (through August 6) at The Film Forum.
Based on a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, it’s about two lonely souls who meet on a canal bridge one night. Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) is new to the town and is wandering the streets at dusk when he sees a woman crying on a bridge. The woman- Natalia (lovely Maria Schell) is waiting, desperately, for the man she loves to return and meet her there after a year. She lives with a near-blind grandmother and one day a handsome lodger (Jean Marais) showed up and Natalia fell madly in love with him. But he inexplicably terminated his lease and left suddenly one night, promising to return in a year, and so Natalia waits for him.
Over the course of a few nights Mario waits with her, holding vigil, but falling more and more in love with her. There is a wonderful scene in a bar where everyone begins wildly dancing to Bill Haley’s 13 Women on the jukebox (and Mario does a hilarious, interpretive dance) that is sensational. Maria Schell has a wonderful infectious laugh and sweet smile and her beauty, innocence and sadness is palpably poignant. As for Marcello Mastroianni– he is so handsome and tender and love struck that he really breaks your heart.
This was a major transition for Visconti from the neo-realism of his earlier film to more stylized work. All of it is filmed on a massive soundstage in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios, and the artifice makes it all the more magical and dreamlike. The black and white cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno (The Leopard/Amarcord) and score by Nino Rota are both stunningly sublime. A truly beautiful film.
Playing at The Film Forum (209 W. Houston St.).
