‘A crucial turning point, the link between Visconti’s early neorealist manner and the obsessive stylization of his late films.’ – Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
‘The city of Visconti’s film is a palimpsest in which postwar modernity … is superimposed on the ruins of the city’s gothic past.’ – Michael Sooriyakumaran, Bright Lights Film Journal
In a Tuscan port city, young drifter Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) passes a woman, Natalia (Maria Schell), in tears on a bridge. Over the following evenings, they meet in the same place, and she confides the reason for her vigil: she is waiting for a man whose promise to return has not been kept. Although he is developing feelings of his own, Mario offers to act as her intermediary, bringing ever closer the inevitable moment that they must part – or, perhaps, fall into one another’s arms.
An adaptation of a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Luchino Visconti’s nocturnal fantasy evokes classic French films of the 1940s in his use of studio sets and high-contrast lighting – a far cry from the Neorealism that had dominated the Italian cinema of the past decade. Yet, amid this heightened artificiality, the aching of human longing shines through.
Introduced by Ivan Cerecina at Ritz Cinemas and Adrian Danks at Lido Cinemas.
Presented with the generous support of L’Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Sydney and L’Istituto Italiano di Cultura Melbourne.
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