Review of Nights of Cabiria (1957) by Ryan H — 23 Jun 2011

OK, well then, Nights of Cabiria is a full out masterpiece. It starts out with a woman named Cabiria who is enjoying her day out with her boyfriend, until he pushes her in the water and steals her bag then runs away. Cabiria doesn't know how to swim, she will drown. But some young boys see her drowning and they get some men to come to her rescue. This is when we find out Cabiria is a strong woman. She wakes up and leaves these men to go searching for her boyfriend. He wouldn't have done that to her on purpose, right? She finally realizes he does and she burns everything he had at her place. She cries for the night, only to be better the next day. She doesn't need anyone's help, she can make it on her own. I love Cabiria. She is so cute and funny when she's being stubborn. She goes out and has fun, no matter who is watching. But there is always this thick exterior about her. This is probably due to the fact that she is a prostitute. When she meets the celebrity and follows him through the night, and in the end denies the money he tries to give her, we can't help but notice she wants more in life than money and her house. There is a scene where she gets hypnotized at a magic show and she is talking to a rich man named Oscar who wants to dance with her and marry her. Cabiria is so pure and innocent in this scene. She says she wants to be like the 18 year old girl she was with her mother going to church. Her vulnerability on stage made me nervous. After the act she decides to hide away because all of these men saw who she really was, and that's definitely not ok. One of them finds her, and his name just so happens to be Oscar. He says there is something about her that he loves. She's cautious about him at first. Cabiria knows better. The only good interaction with a man that she has had is with the celebrity. It wasn't a pure interaction, but he had overall good intentions. Seemed like her just wanted her company more than her body.

**SPOILERS**.

But even though Oscar says he doesn't care about who Cabiria once was, he is still an evil man tricking her. He asks her to marry him, and she says yes and sells all of her things to move in with him. When she meets up with Oscar, Cabiria is talkative and happy. However, just like her last boyfriend, Oscar steals her money and almost pushes her over the cliff to drown her. Cabiria cries and cries, she wants him to kill her. What's the point of life? She saw the last prostitute that worked for herself and had lots of money: she lives in a cave now. She started working as a prostitute as a child, so how is she going to do anything else? In the very last scene, Cabiria is walking away with her mascara spread on her face and crying, but people of the town start playing music around her and dancing, which makes her get a little smile on her face. There is this huge feeling of pain I had while watching her story in the end, but even in the pain there was some hope. No one does such a good job at objectively looking at the emotions in life as Federico Fellini. He's is truly a brilliant filmmaker, and Masina gives a performance that will be stuck in my mind for the rest of my life.