When the Night

The film premiered at the 68th Venice International Film Festival in September,[10][11][12] following in October at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival,[13] the Haifa International Film Festival,[14] the Marrakech International Film Festival,[15] and the London Film Festival,[16] before its theatrical release 28 October 2011 in Italy.[17]

Due to its content, there had been a restriction placed on the film on 26 October, banning it from being seen by children under 14 . After an appeal by Cattleya, the restriction was lifted on the 27th.[18][19]

It screened in January 2012, at Palm Springs International Film Festival,[20] in March 2012 at the Bari International Film Festival,[21][22] in April 2012, at the Festival Cinematográfico Internacional del Uruguay,[15] and is slated to screen in May 2012, at the Seattle International Film Festival.[23]

The received a Golden Lion nomination at the 2011 Venice International Film Festival, and a Golden Anchor Award nomination at the 2011 Haifa International Film Festival.[24] At the Bari International Film Festival in March 2012, Claudia Pandolfi won the 'Anna Magnani Award for Best Actress' for her role as Marina.[25]

Monsters & Critics reported that the drama film produced unintended laughter from its audience at the Venice Film Festival when some of the verbal interaction between the characters of Marina and Manfred were misinterpreted by viewers.[3] In defending her film after its screening, writer/director Comencini stated, "Alcuni momenti della storia sono emozionanti, e non sempre ai festival l'emozione è accettata. Ci vuole coraggio, ad avere emozione" (Emotions are not always accepted at festivals. In this film there are two or three very emotional moments and courage is needed to feel emotions). She offered that while it might be acceptable to insult a film when it was over, doing so during a screening is a form of violence that negatively affects the perceptions of other viewers.[26] Último Segundo offered that the it was surprising that a 55-year-old filmmaker could write such a childish screenplay.[27] Variety panned the film for its lack of proper character development by writing of the two leads "The script doesn't bother to give her [Marina] a career or background, other family or friends. She's not in her 20s, but it seems she's never known anyone to have a baby before. If Marina is a cipher, Manfred is given too much of a backstory, allowing Comencini to indulge in the most facile pop psychology profiling."[2] They also make note of Comencini treating the situations "as wisdom from the skies"[2] when the commonplace events surrounding a child sometimes injuring himself were, for most viewers, "hardly a revelation".[2] The also noted problems in its "laughable dialogue" being too overly ernest.[2] Mymovies.it wrote that the novel was betrayed by the film in that Comencini failed to create a proper screenplay from her book, itself judged to be "pieno di una tensione che non si placa mai, come in certi amori che fanno male" (full of tension that never subsides, as in certain loves that hurt).[17]

Offering a positive view toward the film's screening at the London Film Festival, the British Film Institute wrote that Claudia Pandolfi was convincing, the Alpine location was a "starkly beautiful but wild and dangerous backdrop that is a notable feature of the film's atmosphere and impact", and that the film was "a tour de force adult melodrama that recalls both David Lean's Passionate Friends and Ulu Grosbard's Falling In Love but is distinct from both."[28]