Filmmakers over the years have gotten more than a little inspiration from the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky, so it’s no surprise that there have been numerous screen adaptations of his 1848 story of unrequited love on the streets of Saint Petersburg, “White Nights.” Last fall, Janus Films gave us a new 4K restoration of Robert Bresson’s version of the story, Four Nights of a Dreamer, set in the bohemian milieu of 1970s Paris. Now, it’s Luchino Visconti’s turn. His 1957 film White Nights moves the story to Livorno, albeit a fantasy version created on a soundstage at Cinecittà in Rome, and heightens the emotions to the point of melodrama in the way that few other filmmakers could do as masterfully. The result is guaranteed to stir the soul and break the heart.
Instant Enchantment
Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) is a lonely young man who recently moved to Livorno for his job. He doesn’t really know anyone except his boss and his landlady, so when he spies a beautiful young woman crying on a small bridge over a canal, he cannot help but feel drawn to her. The woman, Natalia (Maria Schell), doesn’t tell Mario much at first, but she agrees to meet him in the same spot at the same time the next night, where she eventually tells him her story.
Natalia lives and works in her family’s rug-mending business with her nearly blind and extremely protective grandmother; both of her parents ran off years ago, so her grandmother has taken to pinning Natalia’s skirt to hers to ensure that she doesn’t do the same. One day, a new tenant arrives to rent the rooms upstairs, a mysterious and handsome man who remains nameless throughout the film (Jean Marais). The tenant and Natalia fall madly in love, but shortly afterward, he tells her that he has to leave for one year. Natalia agrees to wait for him to return, but the year has since passed, and the tenant is back in town, and he hasn’t reunited with Natalia as planned. Still, she refuses to give up hope, much to Mario’s chagrin.
I Yearn Therefore I Am
Over the course of the next few nights, Mario attempts to convince Natalia that she is naive for continuing to wait, all the while falling more and more hopelessly in love with her. However, despite the fog hanging over the nighttime streets, it’s never less than absolutely clear that Mario wants something from Natalia that she is incapable of giving as long as the possibility remains that she’ll see the tenant again. That Mario succumbs to these feelings anyway and convinces himself that he can win over Natalia despite her repeatedly declaring her love for the absent tenant proves that he is just as, if not more so, naive as she is, and far less self-aware. (Needless to say, I would have forgotten all about the tenant as soon as Mario pointed those puppy-dog eyes in my direction, but Natalia is clearly a stronger woman than I.)
Every frame of White Nights is suffused with so much yearning that you almost become lightheaded watching these two lovely, lonely people drift around the dreamlike streets of Livorno. Each night, the two of them tentatively circle each other, seeking much-needed solace from the isolation inherent in city life: that feeling when you’re surrounded by other people but feel incapable of connecting with any of them. That the film was shot on a soundstage gives the elaborate sets—the winding canals, the mazelike bridges, the streetlights gently glowing in the mist—a sense of unreality, but that only adds to the feeling one has of watching a romantic fairy tale unfold…albeit one with a decidedly bittersweet ending.
The new 4K restoration of White Nights enhances and preserves the film’s black-and-white visual magic, including the almost painfully attractive faces of its two stars. Mastroianni has never been more adorably charming (albeit also a bit pathetic, like the stray dog he befriends early in the film) than he is as Mario, while Schell’s wide eyes and irrepressibly expressive face are perfect for conveying the emotional rollercoaster that Natalia is on throughout the film. The scene in which they go to a nightclub and dance together—Natalia reluctant and embarrassed at first, but eventually giving herself over to the freewheeling fun of it all—is charged with so much giddy chemistry that I could have watched it forever. But, as Mario learns by the end of White Nights, such moments of unbridled happiness rarely last as long as you’d like—though, if you’re lucky, the memories may linger on a little longer.
Conclusion
A prime example of the magic that is possible when a master of one art form adapts the work of another, White Nights is one of the most enchanting films you’ll see in this or any year.
The new 4K restoration of White Nights opens at Film Forum in New York on July 24, 2026.
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