Maria Schell is the brightest star in these white nights filmed in the beautiful sets of Cinecittà. Marcello Mastroianni and Jean Marais cannot compare to her in a love triangle story that suffers as the most dramatic elements are unravelled and we get close to the end.

During a night stroll Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) encounters the lonely and shy Natalia (Maria Schell) crying in a bridge. For him is love at first sight, for her he is just some another intruding man trying to take advantage of her while she waits for her true love (Jean Marais).

The amazing sets of Cinecittà studios are half of this movie. From interior rooms, buildings and cafés to beautiful exteriors that capture the neighbourhood where our characters live with grand streets, canals, post-war runes, all those elements elevate exponentially the degree of engagement that you feel as an audience towards the story.

Accompanied to that, it is noteworthy the photography work from Giuseppe Rotunno around it. Playing obviously with light and actor positioning to get great shots and compositions, it is above anything else the multiple angles that he actually uses to film the recurrent and limited spaces which further emphasise the power of the sets while keeping them fresh and non-monotonous.

When it comes to the starring trio, it is Maria Schell who stands tall above her colleagues. While Marcello Mastroianni is a bit too much all over the place when it comes to his performance (dramatic, Machiavelli, clownish…) and Jean Marais is rather dull, quite surprising that any of these characters could actually lure Natalia, on the other hand Schell captures to perfection the virgin and innocent nature of her character. With a gaze and smile that hypnotise all throughout the film, she seems to be the only one to truly understand the feelings and demeanour of her childish and repressed character.

This unbalance between the work of the two competing male actors and Schell’s damages the believability of the love story. Especially in a third act in which, after having witnessed Natalia’s relationship towards each one of them (Mario during the first act and the mysterious lover in the second), the instability of Mario and paternalism of the other lover are shown and make up for a ridiculous and rather unsatisfying conclusion. As it leaves Maria as a simple-minded girl with no character development throughout the story with whom men are completely free to play with.

In conclusion, while the film excels in its technical department making the most of out of the limitations of a closed set and studio production, and although having a great leading performance by Maria Schell, it just feels like this Dostoyevsky adaptation does not hold up to the current times at all due to its clear misogynistic perspective. But even if we would “excuse” that to generational matters, considering that this is a 50s piece during which society was undoubtedly ruled by such views, the truth of the matter is that the one-dimensionality and lack of critical perspective from the character of Natalia of how she is being treated by both men just feels like lazy writing when developing profound personalities.