I read Dostoyevsky’s short story “White Nights” in my teens and was deeply moved—as I was by all his work. I saw Luchino Visconti’s film version (a prizewinner at the 1957 Venice Film Festival) in college, and I was taken by it as well. Visconti’s clerk may be solitary and poor, but he is more secure, confident, and attractive to women than Dostoyevsky’s anti-hero. Visconti has made a quasi-operatic film with a score by Nino Rota—everything more stylized and a bit larger than life. Mario takes Natalia to a crowded bar where a group of young Italians feverishly dances to rock and roll.