White Nights (Le Notti Bianche)
directed by Luchino Visconti (1957, Italy)

Went to UCLA yesterday afternoon with HP and Mg to check out one of the films in the ongoing Visconti retrospective. The summary goes something like this: Based on a Dostoyevsky novella; nice, normal guy recently moved into town sees a pretty girl crying on a bridge at night. Trys to pick her up and eventually gets a date with her. He falls in love with her but she's hung up on a lover that she had an agreement with to meet in a year if they're still in love with the other. Nice, normal guy is totally devoted to her and tells her she is causing grief for herself when it doesn't look like the lover is coming back. She finally breaks down and decides to give the new guy a chance as she's become fond of him as well. They are celebrating when they turn the corner and who should be standing on the original bridge but her lover with whom she quickly runs to. Nice, normal guy is devastated and walks down a deserted Italian street.

I can't say it was the best film I've ever seen but the cinematography is beautiful and the sets look like something out of disneyland. They created an entire Italian town that looked like Venice but was supposed to be some other town. Marcello is also funny and likable as the "nice" guy and the beatnik rock n roll dance off in the cafe is frickin hilarious. I really felt for him too.