Le Notti Bianche (white Nights)
The Criterion Collection
Movie •••½
Picture/Sound •••½
Extras •••½ |
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Divorce Italian Style
The Criterion Collection
Movie •••½
Picture/Sound •••½
Extras •••½ |
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In White Nights (1957) Marcello Mastroianni shows his great emotional range as Mario, a young man going through the mill of unrequited infatuation with a girl he meets on a bridge (Maria Schell). Director Luchino Visconti uses the actor's charm and self-deprecating humor to add poignancy to Fyodor Dostoyevsky's lessons in love. In Divorce Italian Style (1961), Mastroianni's comic talents are shown even more as he plays Ferdinando, a vain, aristrocratic lounge lizard plotting to kill his wife in a crime of passion - if only he can find her a lover.
The images in both films are clean, except for occasional edge damage in Nights. Divorce's sun-drenched Sicily is filled with crisp, dazzlingly white shirts and deep black suits. The picture of Nights is detailed even in the shadowy exteriors.Characters in the foreground, atmospheric street types in the midground, and cityscapes far in the background are all distinct. Sound on both titles is a clear mono. Both sets have cast-and-crew interviews and screen tests - more substantial ones on Divorce's two-disc set, which also contains a 40-minute documentary. Both: [NR] Italian, Dolby Digital mono (with English subtitles); anamorphic widescreen. White Nights: letterboxed (1.66:1); dual layer. Divorce: letterboxed (1.85:1); two dual-layer discs.
