Le Notte di Cabiria
(a/k/a Nights of Cabiria, Italy 1957 Black and White)
It was a beautiful summer evening, so I figured I would spend it at the movies. So I figured I should go to the movies. But, with *Bulworth*, *Clockwatchers*, and even *Wilde* all suddenly gone by mid-July, and *The Mask of Zorro* not out yet, my only viable choice was a restored classic of Italian neorealism--*Nights of Cabiria*.
When you don't know a lot about director Federico Fellini, it might be easy to be scared off. However, *Nights of Cabiria* sends a message so universal and stirring you would have to be either an idiot or have a heart of stone not to love this movie, or at least not understand it.
The title character is a prostitute named Maria "Cabiria" Ceccarelli (played by Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina). While we are used to seeing prostitutes being portrayed as drug addicts or abuse victims, the sense here is that even 12 years after World War II, prostitution is a matter of economics. Cabiria is a bit different from the other hookers at the Passegiata Archeologica. She actually owns her rectangular cinder-block house on a dirt road on the outskirts of Rome. She assiduously avoids falling into the clutches of pimps who offer protection. But she is foolish in one way. She's a fool for love. The film opens with Cabiria being tossed into a canal and left for drowned by her latest "beau", who has also run off with a lot of her money.
The sense here is that the nights of Cabiria are not just the nights she spends on the streets and having dreamlike experiences; she has a lot of restless nights of the soul, too, as she is endless in her quest for true love.
Cabiria sees the highs and lows in 1957 Roma. She spends a chaste evening with a movie star Alberto Lazzari (Amedeo Nazzari) one night, and winds up wandering the streets, dumped by a john in the countryside, the next. She gets rambunctious with her hooker friends, and just as quickly accompanies them to a religious pilgrimage to beg the Virgin's mercy and grace. She also sees two possibilities for herself--the adored mistress of a film star, or the aged prostitute living in a hole in the ground, waiting for the kindness of strangers that helps her survive.
There are also some hits to organized religion. The pilgrimage has a carnival air to it and the much hoped-for miracle of change does not come to Cabiria, who gets more out of her chance encounters with a Good Samaritan and a kooky priest on the street than she does from the Roman Catholic Church proper.
Finally, Cabiria winds up at a hypnotist's show and her true essence is revealed on stage. She promptly winds up courted by Oscar D'Onofrio (Francois Périer), who pursues her relentlessly and asks her few questions. He seems almost too good to be true; but over time he seems to provide an out for Cabiria, saving her with true love.
Two things stand out here. First is Masina's performance. She is an endearing Italian Lucille Ball, with a wonderful comic face and a quality of universal pathos and empathy. It's obvious from the way she is filmed how much Fellini loved her (and why they died five months apart). Second, the reaffirmation of the wonders of life and the resilience of the human spirit are amply shown. *Nights of Cabiria* is told with kindness and affection, and should not be missed.
Written by Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Tullio Pinelli.
Remade as *Sweet Charity* in 1969.
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
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