Le Notti Bianche

Not a scene you'll see in every Luchino Visconti movie, timid Mario and frightened Natalia (Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell) try to loosen up in a bar in the director's imaginary version of Livorno, in Le Notti Bianche (a.k.a. White Nights), 1961.

Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) has returned to the bar where he met Natalia (Maria Schell, speaking Italian she learned in two weeks) the night before, where she didn't quite promise to meet him again, early in Luchino Visconti's Le Notti Bianche (a.k.a. White Nights), 1961.

Office worker Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) has just been dropped off by his new boss in director Luchino Visconti's realistic but 100% artificial recreation of Livorno, sort of meeting Natalia (Maria Schell), early in Le Notti Bianche (a.k.a. White Nights), 1961, from a Dostoyevsky short story.

Natalia (Maria Schell) is at last warming to Mario (Marcello Mastroianni), so she begins to open up about her life, allowing director Luchino Visconi's first departure from reality, introducing "The Lodger," Jean Marais, in Le Notti Bianche (a.k.a. White Nights), 1961.