Coexistence of romanticism with Visconti's realism in a most natural & authentic blend. A fairly eventless dialogue-driven story takes two lonely hearts around a wonderful walk through the explicit reconstitution of a small Italian town by the sea, full of tiny bridges and narrow streets. A few uninspired dialogues contributed to a couple of bland moments, quickly eclipsed by a memorable & invirogorating dance scene to shake some waists up before an exceptional finale. In it the emotional outburst & heart-breaking separation are symbolized by the positioning of the characters in deep field and the travelled distance of the Eternal Woman from one man to the other. Deceit & Self-deceit...