Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Claudio Carvalho In a cold night, the lonely ordinary man Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) is wandering along the empty streets of Livorno after spending the day with the family of his employer. While crossing a bridge, Mario sees a beautiful woman crying and he starts a conversation with her. The reluctant Natalia (Maria Schell) finally accepts his companion to walk her home and they schedule to meet each other on the next day at the same place at 10:00 PM. The romantic and naive Natalia tells Mario that she is Slav and lives with her grandmother. They survive repairing fancy carpets and renting a room in their house. When an unknown tenant (Jean Marais) rents the room, Natalia immediately falls in love with him. However, the man asks for one year apart to raise enough money to get married with her and promising to return and meet her on the bridge where Mario met her in the previous night. She gives a letter to Mario to deliver to the stranger but Mario throws it away in the canal. On the next night, Natalia meets Mario by chance and they spend the snowing night together, dancing, chatting and drinking, and Mario falls in love with her; but while walking back home, the couple sees a man alone on the bridge."Le Notti Bianche" is one of the most beautiful romances I have ever seen. The melancholic, utopist and timeless love story is a different film from the genius Luchino Visconti, based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and was shot in magnificent sets that rebuilt a non- faithful quarter of Livorno in the Cinecittá in the opposite direction of the Italian Neo-Realism. The chemistry between Marcello Mastroianni in one of his best roles and the gorgeous and sweet Maria Schell with her delightful smile in the role of a dreamer is amazing and one of the greatest attractions of this lovely film. The haunting cinematography in black and white is comparable to the German Expressionism with the use of lighting and shadows. Last but not the least, the unforgettable music score of Nino Rota completes this stunning and unknown masterpiece. The DVD released in Brazil by Versátil Dstributor has restored images and perfect sound that highlight the wonderful cinematography. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): "Noites Brancas" ("White Nights")

jotix100 Most interesting movies come from short stories, as Luchino Visconti clearly demonstrates with his "Le Notti Bianchi". based on a tale by Dostoyevsky. The Russian atmosphere is cleverly transported to an Italian town in winter. The film is enhanced by Giuseppe Rotunno brilliant camera work in a movie that was shot entirely in a studio. In fact, the director salutes Cinecitta in the credits because he must have been completely amazed by the look of the end product.The story deals with fantasy and reality. One night Mario, a young man, returns to town in a bus. He notices a distressed and beautiful woman who appears to be in the process of committing suicide by jumping from a bridge. Natalia, the young woman is living in despair because a man who conquered her heart has gone away with the promise he will be back in a year's time. Natalia, who at first doesn't respond to Mario, finds in him a kind soul, but her heart belongs to the man she waits for.Marcello Mastroianni's Mario is fine. He was at one of the most interesting periods of his career when he worked in the picture. The best thing in the movie has to be the scene at the night club where he is trying to get Natalie to dance with him. He makes quite a spectacle of himself dancing to Bill Bailey and the Comets by himself while the other dancing couples admire him.Maria Schell, coming from another school of acting, seems lost at times, as though overwhelmed by the Italian cast around her. Her Natalia has equal parts of sadness and innocence. Jean Marais, one of the best French actors of his generation is seen as the tenant who steals Natalia's heart. Clara Calamai, who had worked in "Ossessione" with Visconti has some excellent moments as a prostitute.Nino Rota's atmospheric music blends well with the context of the film. Ultimately the success of "Le Notti Bianche" belongs to Luchino Visconti who saw greatness in the text by Dostoyevsky.

Polaris_DiB You know, I'm really surprised that I didn't like this movie. It's major theme about the difference in reality and fantasy, along with its stunningly beautiful black and white cinematography, is precisely the sort of thing I look for in film. And yet, I didn't ultimately find it very enjoyable.It's a very smart and well-written movie. The ways in which the character's aspirations and yearning mix with the reality of the situation is very precise and real, speaking both to the original writer of the short story, Dostoyevsky (whose writing resembles the quiet brooding of the male protagonist in many ways) and Visconti's own skill with directing and camera work. In fact, the very self-aware staging of the movie is what makes it easily a majestic cinematic experience, one that really shouldn't be missed. This movie could be watched and easily stay interesting just paying attention to the lighting of the shots and the composition of the frames.Indeed, for a film surrounded in all sorts of romance and yearning, it's very detached, often, from the characters. Close-ups are almost nonexistent and for the most part the camera seems most happy to stay far away, with faces barely recognizable within the mist.It's everything a film goer would love, which is why I find it odd that I didn't much care for the characters. The male protagonist I can understand, and even sympathize with, even as far as his attraction to the female. She, however, is too out of it, completely unreal, almost an idealized notion of something everybody's ideal would be to avoid. In short, I couldn't stand her, or watching her, or anything she did.There were two very strong moments in the film that, for me, made it worth the time spending to see. The first is the dancing scene, where Marcello Mastrianni lets go and changes from the shy but humble courter to one of those virile, energetic youngsters, showing off and mugging. The other is the very end... of which I won't describe for spoiler purposes, but which ultimately makes Mastrianni's character someone we can all relate to.Thus, I can honestly say that this film is magnificent, and that many people should go out and watch it. It's beautiful, contains strong acting and directing, has some very poignant scenes, and has a remarkable control over mise-en-scene. I just really don't like it.--PolarisDiB

MisterWhiplash Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a writer I've gotten into heavily recently, and I couldn't be happier to have seen Luchino Visconti's adaptation of his short story (not yet read by me) as the first. The very essential, human search for happiness with a one true love, that those who may not have much money may at least find some kind of relief from the world in each other's company, is at the heart of Dostoyevksy's stories. And while often filled with sorrow, decay, and with enough melodrama to sink a ship, this spirit is then given catharsis when the good that comes in through the dark times it's something to really cling to. Visconti has his own style already taking on Dostoyevsky's work, and I wondered going into it if the director of another great adaptation, Ossessione, could pull it off. For me, it may even be better than that film; Le Notti Bianche gives us characters who are not overly complicated or with nefarious desires. If anything, these are the kinds of characters that I wish were in movies more often, flaws and all.Marcello Mastroianni is also, for me, a really pleasant surprise seeing him in this film. Regrettably the only films I've seen him in are the early ones he made with Fellini, where his persona is cool, detached, and he could do his ultra suave &/or depressed and unchained characters effortlessly. With the character of Mario, Mastroianni is playing just an ordinary guy, with a low paying job and nothing special going for him in life. But if nothing else he is what most women in real life would look for in men, with compassion, sensitivity, but also sensible and with some of the minor flaws of being a nice guy. With the character of Natalia, Mario meets a woman whom he falls for hard, and wants to see again after a chance encounter. Maria Schnell is perfect against Mastroianni, as she has that kind of face and look in her eye (for lack of a better comparison) of any given American melodrama, only a bit more genuine. She's basically been waiting, as she tells, for a year for the man who will whisk her away from all of her troubles. But will he? Will Mario come through on a letter? What happens through the course of an unsure night? Visconti poises these two against a backdrop completely staged, brilliantly in fact, and shot by the great Giussepe Rotunno with the kind of visual splendor that in its own way is on par with Visconti's the Leopard. It's not filmed in the real world, and the melodrama in the film is that of a very cinematic- or maybe theatrical- nature, but because it's an ultimately believable one the atmosphere gets heightened. Topped with Nino Rota's elegant score, many a wide shot shows Mario and Natalia on their walks along the streets, and then the close-ups work just as well. Best of all is a quasi ice breaker of Visconti's by doing a dance number in a bar, adding a sweet, if dated, levity that acts as the last mark before the story turns, and turns some more. What drew me in most about Le Notti Bianchi is how Visconti makes this a story of pure emotions, but one that is not at all sappy or trashy or whatever. Like with many of Dostoyevsky's characters, even through their misguided wants and feelings and the sense of anguish that may come to them (or not), we care about them. If ever a director, who started in neo-realistic roots, took a 180 and made it just as dramatically satisfying, it's here. One of the best films of 1957.