Gigi-83

"The white nights" is a very fragile exquisite tale based on story of Dostoievsky. With the images extremely beautiful it tells the story of an ordinary young man Mario, who met an unusual, like from another century girl, fell in love with her and almost made her fall in love too and then lost her forever. Here two different worlds collide unambiguously - the modern, cold, indifferent stylized world and the old, more intimate and hearty one, and this collision makes many ironical and sad situations. Mastroiani plays one of his best role and looks like a real melancholic looser, Shell is eccentric, touching and gentle with her little hat and ridiculous gorgette ( dresses made by Piero Tosi seems to be the another participants of performance, so nice and expressive they are). Marais seems imperturbable like always and looks very mysteriously, a kind of fatal personage, incarnation of doom. In general film is very nice, gently and by the end tear-wringing (that's not bad indeed) and Visconti with his talent of turning usual realistic details into symbolic made this story even more beautiful then in a book.

I guess that the film of De Sica is very little in common with the excellent novel of Moravia on which it's based. In a novel one can immensely enjoy the detailed depictions of situations and reflections of practical and obstinate but very good-hearted and sharp-minded Cesira. In the film the narration is very chaotic and many situations or characters are treated in not a very profound way. Loren seems too glossy for a simple rude countrywoman and sometimes her performance seems quite stiff (the most convincing only in the sequence of waiting for her daughter who had gone to the dancing with Florindo). Such important character as Michele Festa was absolutely mistreated. In film he's only ridiculous with his clumsy wooing of Cesira. Indeed Michele in book is a kind of new formation intellectual that was moulded under the pressure of fascist regime but had acquired spontaneous but well-conscious anti-fascism. He's a gloomy reserved young man with the hidden tempests inside, outsider among the countrymen and his relatives, sometimes bursting into tantrums but with a gift of persuasion and imposing. You should have heard his powerful speech about "the corpses who imagine that they are alive" which is unfortunately much cut in film. And by the way he absolutely wasn't interested in women. So in general if you want to grasp all the tragedy of Ciociara you should first read a book and then it would be very ridiculous to compare it with the film where De Sica even in the most tragic moment didn't forget to set off Loren's semi-nude bust. Well if her husband is a producer it's quite acceptable.

I've seen "Boccaccio" just few days ago and so I can express my fresh opinion of it. And I have seen FOUR segments of it - including "Renzo e Luciana" of Monicelli which is quite good. It puts some accent on social criticism and tells about young consorts that due to their poverty and constrained conditions have to bear many difficulties in their family life. The second of Fellini I almost forced myself to look to the end - I'm not fond of big bust and hips like ones of Ekberg. This segment seemed to me too flashy and tasteless (just imagine the plump Cupidon with the silky wings and nuns in the paper burlesque frock)though it's main idea concerning with the sexual complexes that obsess the most convinced moralists is very clear. I regret to write this as I didn't expect such a disappointment from Fellini whom I esteem much for his wonderful "Le notti di Cabiria". The third segment - 'Il Lavoro" ( The job) - is the most exquisite, thoughtful, plastic and stylish. Here Visconti tried to subject to his rigorous analysis the question of what lies in the base of a modern marriage. It's also the story of a young well-off little woman ( Romy Schneider) that one day faces the necessity of earning money by her own (thanks to her light-minded husband's behavior) and understand that she has nothing to offer in this men's world except her body. Romy dressed up by Chanel is very sexual (but when I use this word it means something very far from vulgar, something surrounded with the mist of secret and desire) and touching; after the number of the roles of cheerful ingenuous girls she for the first time found the image suiting her real abilities and qualities. The forth segment is "La riffa" (The raffle) be de Sica. De Sica made some good film in the time of realism but then yielded to the commercial cinema and seemed to be unable for the more or less significant criticism. Thus his segment is very light and benevolent with a lot of spicy humor and a lot of Loren