Le Notti Bianche is one of those black and white classic romance films from the forties or fifties – except it is measurably better than most of them. Many of the older romance films fall into deadly cliché traps which really restrain the said films from becoming anything memorable. To be fair, Le Notti Bianche does fall into a few of them, such as a terrible use of soundtrack, but it thankfully avoids many of them. Weather I should attribute this to Dostoevsky, who wrote the book which is the basis for the movie, or direction, I do not know.
Maybe it was both, because I loved both the story, and the characters as well as the construction of the itself movie. The characters seem carefully crafted and real, and I actually really found myself relating to the lead man of the story. His character and mentalities mirrored me in certain respects. I saw myself in him, which is always something I really like to see a movie be able to do. The story itself – the chance encounter and love at first sight - may seem clichéd, but some how it works. Maybe it’s because throughout the movie nothing ever seems certain, as if the audience knows they will get together again. In Le Notti Bianche, everything seems to be hanging in the air, and you are never quite sure how everything will land. I did think the final leg of the movie was a bit overdone, and went against how the main character acted during the rest of the movie, but the way the movie resolves was very nicely done, and felt very sincere. It avoids what most other movies would have done to wrap up the movie, which I am very grateful for. The ending actually was very tragic and sad, without giving anything away – I really felt sorry for one of the characters.
From a technical perspective, Le Notti Bianche is incredible. The cinematography actually reminded me of The Third Man on many occasions. The graceful movement and the brilliant lighting of the wet cobble stone really lent a lot to creating a thick atmosphere for the movie. It’s too bad the music was terrible, or else it could have worked with the cinematography to create a fully incredible visual/aural experience. At least the music was used sparingly, and the photography was marvelous enough for me to disregard any other technical misgivings.
Overall, I really did adore Le Notti Bianche. The story was very compelling and I loved the characters – it was a very well done romance from a narrative perspective. It wasn’t perfect, as I mentioned, especially at the final ten minutes which were too ecstatic, but in the end it all worked very well. The cinematography is what really helps this movie set itself apart from other romantics from a technical perspective though – it really is very beautiful, enough even to warrant seeing this movie even if you don’t like romances. However, I don’t think that should be a problem. Le Notti Bianche does a great job at creating genuine characters and in the end the I really cared about the, and what was going to happen to them. The movie was all at once enjoyable, depressing, thoughtful and was careful to avoid clichés. Very much recommended.
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