Sentimentalists will feel rapturously at home with Melodies of White Nights. It is the story of Yuko and Alyosha, who get to know each other in Leningrad (now Petrograd/St Petersburg) during the white nights period between April and August when the sun never really sets. Yuko is a Japanese pianist who has always been fascinated by the classical music of Russia and makes a pilgrimage to this place that tugs at her heart. Alyosha is a composer who is putting together a concerto which becomes inspired by his and Yuko's time together. It is a chaste movie, with not even a single kiss on show, but it reminds you of the some of the more tender facets of love, contentness with just being around the other person, the feeling of impertiness at the thought of interfering with someone else's life with declarations of love. There is no animus in the movie, the drama is simply provided by the fact that Yuko lives a whole world away and must return at the end of summer. Both Yuko and Alyosha suffer from unhappiness, both have the empyrean consolation of art. What can happen for them?
A trip to a foreign country is a good metaphor for love itself, which is why the film works so well.
