Le Notti Bianche (1957) on Netflix
New in Livorno, Mario finds Natalia weeping on a bridge over a canal. She keeps watch there each night for a man who left a year ago and promised to return.
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- IMDb7.7/1010,510 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes89%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mario, a clerk who has lately come to Livorno, has spent the day with the family he works for and now walks the empty streets. On a small canal bridge he finds Natalia in tears; motorcyclists bother her, he drives them off, and she lets him walk her home. They arrange to meet again the following night. There she says she would not want him to think her an easy woman, and tells him she is keeping watch on the bridge. Natalia lives with her protective, nearly blind grandmother. A man who rented a room in the house loved her and then left suddenly, promising to come back within a year. The year is over, she has had no word, and she comes out at night to wait for him. Mario tells her she is naive.
Cast
- Lanfranco Ceccarellias Un coinvolto nella rissa
- Angelo Galassias Un coinvolto nella rissa
- Dirk Sandersas Il ballerino
Show all 20 cast
- Romano Barbierias Il figlio della famiglia amica di Mario
- Alberto Carlonias Il locandiere
- Dino D'Aquilioas Un ragazzino
- Anna Filippinias La Figlia della Famiglia Amica di Mario (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Le Notti Bianche (1957)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Luchino Visconti cast Maria Schell after meeting her at a film festival where he was a juror. Impressed that she learned all of her dialogue in Italian, he let her loop her own lines instead of dubbing her, as was standard for foreign actors at the time.
- To get the film's misty nighttime atmosphere while keeping the actors clearly visible, Visconti and cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno hung large rolls of tulle from ceiling to floor and placed street lamps just behind it, rather than using filters on the camera lenses.
- 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.
- The 2008 American film Two Lovers, though not an adaptation, was inspired by the short story as well as by Visconti's film.
