The first adaptation of a short story by Dostoyevsky which also inspired Robert Bresson and James Gray

Mario arrives in a town that looks like Livorno. During his first night, wandering in the deserted streets, he crosses on a bridge a young woman in tears, Natalia. Sometimes ecstatic, sometimes overwhelmed, the latter has a strange and fascinating behavior. The following night, Mario finds her in the same place. Natalia confesses to him that she runs away every night to wait, on this bridge, for the man she loves and who gave her an appointment a year ago...

Adaptation of a short story by Dostoyevsky which also inspired Robert Bresson ( Four Nights of a Dreamer ), James Gray ( Two Lovers ) and Sanjay Leela Bhansali ( Saawariya ), White Nights marks a turning point in the career of Luchino Visconti. By breaking with the neorealism of his first works, the filmmaker turns to an ornate and baroque poetic realism closer to the universe of Marcel Carné ( Les Enfants du paradi s) and his future achievements ( Death in Venice ). Carried by a trio of legendary actors, the Italian Marcello Mastroianni, the Austrian Maria Schell and the Frenchman Jean Marais, White Nights is a timeless work which, through its black and white and its phantasmagorical decorations, concentrates all the powers imaginaries of cinema.

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
(1957 – B&W – 102 mins – VOSTF)
New Master Restored

SUPPLEMENTS

. TIMELESS COSTUMES (23 mins)
White Nights required extreme precision supported by the will of the perfectionist Visconti. How to work costumes with black and white? How to adapt Dostoyevsky's novel? Piero Tosi, costume designer for the film and faithful collaborator of Luchino Visconti, returns to these questions.

. DREAMS AND REALISM (24 mins)
Vieri Razzini, film critic and producer, explains how Luchino Visconti and his artistic team direct characters and staging towards a certain theatricality, between dreamlike and realism.

. TRAILER