Luchino Visconti’s WHITE NIGHTS

Italy, 1957 Directed by Luchino Visconti Based on the short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky Starring Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell, Jean Marais In Italian with English subtitles Approx 103 min. “Visconti’s version of the Dostoevsky story—about the chance encounter of a couple as she is waiting in vain for her lover, and the obsessive, panic-stricken relationship which then develops between them—later filmed by Bresson as FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER. Visconti traps his characters (three excellent performances) within a claustrophobic canal-side set, and the film is a series of brief walks, chases, attempted escapes, always frustrated. Shot as neo-realist high tragedy, the film offers its characters only one strange moment of escape from their night-time obsessions—a raucous, sexual, subversive scene in a dance-hall. Then the snow comes down, and with it a chilly desperation about the extent of human self-delusion.” – Time Out Restored by Luce Cinecittà, from the original 35mm negative Presented with support from the Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film  A JANUS FILMS RELEASE