A Night Full of Rain

{{Infobox film

| name = A Night Full of Rain

| image = A Night Full of Rain.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| native_name = {{Infobox name module|it|La fine del mondo nel nostro solito letto in una notte piena di pioggia}}

| director = Lina Wertmüller

| writer = Lina Wertmüller

| producer = Gil Shiva

| starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

| cinematography = Giuseppe Rotunno

| editing = Franco Fraticelli

| music = Roberto De Simone

| studio = {{Plainlist|

Liberty Film
Canafox Films

}}

| distributor = Warner Bros.

| released = {{Film date|df=yes|1978|1|17|Italy|1978|1|29|New York City}}

| runtime = 104 minutes

| country = {{Plainlist|

Italy
United States

}}

| language = English

}}

A Night Full of Rain ({{langx|it|La fine del mondo nel nostro solito letto in una notte piena di pioggia|lit=The End of the World in Our Usual Bed on a Night Full of Rain}}) is a 1978 romantic drama film written and directed by Lina Wertmüller, starring Giancarlo Giannini and Candice Bergen.{{cite news|first=Vincent|last=Canby|author-link=Vincent Canby|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990CE5DA1E3EE632A25753C3A9679C946990D6CF|title=The End of the World in Our Usual Bed in a Night Full of Rain (1978) New Lina Wertmuller Movie: Her First in English|newspaper=The New York Times|date=30 January 1978|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505195016/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990CE5DA1E3EE632A25753C3A9679C946990D6CF|archive-date=5 May 2014}} The plot concerns a romantic and heart-breaking relationship between a chauvinist Italian journalist and a feminist American photographer.

An international co-production between Italy and the United States,{{cite web|url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150055582|title=La fine del mondo nel nostro solito letto in una notte piena di pioggia|publisher=British Film Institute|access-date=9 February 2025}} the film was shot in Rome, Calabria and Padua, Italy, as well as in San Francisco and Vancouver.{{cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/56332|title=The End of the World in Our Usual Bed in a Night Full of Rain (1978) – History|website=AFI Catalog of Feature Films|access-date=9 February 2025}} It was Wertmüller's first film with original English-language dialogue.

In 1978, the film was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival.{{cite web|url=https://mubi.com/films/the-end-of-the-world-in-our-usual-bed-in-a-night-full-of-rain|title=The End of the World in Our Usual Bed in a Night Full of Rain (1978)|website=Mubi|access-date=9 February 2025}}

Plot

An American tourist, her head full of Marcuse and radical politics, gets involved in a violent confrontation during a Catholic procession in a small Italian village, seeking to protect an Italian girl. An Italian man, attracted to her, tries to help. As they escape to a magnificent abandoned cloister, the man, a communist, tries to seduce the American by quoting Dante. She refuses him when she realizes his insincerity, and he ends up almost raping her, but she escapes. Randomly meeting later in San Francisco, the guy hits on her again and eventually they get married. Their marriage however is troubled.

Cast

Giancarlo Giannini as Paolo
Candice Bergen as Lizzy
Michael Tucker as Friend
Mario Scarpetta as Friend
Lucio Amelio as Friend
Massimo Wertmüller as Friend
Anny Papa as Friend
Anne Byrne Hoffman as Friend
Flora Carabella as Friend
Anita Paltrinieri as Friend
Giuliana Carnescecchi as Friend
Alice Colombo Oxman as Friend
Jill Eikenberry
Paola Ojetti
Enzo Vitale
Paola Silvia Rotunno
John West Buchanan
Lilli Carati (as Ileana Caravati)
Alison Tucker

Reception

Film critic John Simon described A Night Full of Rain as an "almost total failure".{{cite book |last=Simon |first=John |author-link=John Simon (critic) |url=https://archive.org/details/somethingtodecla0000simo/page/373/mode/2up |title=Something to Declare: Twelve Years of Films from Abroad |location=New York |publisher=Clarkson N. Potter |year=1983 |page=373 |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-517-549032}}