White Nights
UW Cinematheque 821 University Ave., UW Vilas Hall, Room 4070, Madison, Wisconsin
media release: Italy | 1957 | DCP | 101 min. | Italian with English subtitles
Director: Luchino Visconti
Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell, Jean Marais
Visconti’s ravishing adaptation of a Dostoevsky story stars Mastroianni and Schell as two lonely souls whose chance meeting on a moonlit canal blossoms into a fragile romance haunted by past loves and melancholy longing. Set within a dreamlike, studio-built city of shadowy streets and shimmering canals, the film transforms a fleeting encounter into an achingly beautiful meditation on love. This new 4K restoration brings the breathtaking black-and-white imagery of Le notti bianche back to the big screen, allowing cinema viewers to discover one of the great masterpieces of postwar Italian cinema.
Admission is free, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times.
Three White Nights
In October at the Cinematheque, three master filmmakers utilize Fyodor Dostoevsky’s enduring short story White Nights to discover new, different, and personal visions within its tale of lonely hearts, chance encounters, and impossible love. From Luchino Visconti’s luminous dreamscape of postwar longing Le notti bianche, to Robert Bresson’s quietly transcendent Parisian reverie Four Nights of a Dreamer, to James Gray’s deeply felt contemporary Brooklyn reimagining Two Lovers, each film reflects the anxieties and romantic ideals of its own time while remaining faithful to Dostoevsky’s profound understanding of desire, memory, and human connection.
