Cabiria; Nights Of Cabiria; Le Notti Di Cabiria

1132. CABIRIA (Nights Of Cabiria) (Le Notti Di Cabiria) (1957-Italy). Directed by FEDERICO FELLINI. With GIULIETTA MASINA, AMADEO NAZZARI. Produced by DINO DeLAURENTIIS. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, 1957. Spritely Giulietta Masina is Cabiria, a prostitute with a heart of gold. While her friends find fortune (and shiny convertible cars) in the care of handsome pimps, she makes her own way, even owns her own small house in a disreputable part of Rome. Cabiria pursues the dream of a better life, tries to find a man to marry, but winds up a bit worse for the wear with each attempt. Her naivetŽ makes her a target for the jaded and degenerate who populate Rome from the sleazy Appian Way to the fashionable Via Veneto. In those ancient streets, Fellini’s prostitutes, drug dealers, actors, cripples and clergy form a society of hypocrites who lie, steal and cheat, and then fervently pray to the Madonna to cleanse them, to one of the most powerful sequences, Cabiria and her friends attend a religious pilgrimage in which the ceremonies become an unholy carnival as desperate sinners overpower cotton candy and sacred candle vendors in a rush towards salvation. Cabiria cannot escape the mob, nor can she escape the society into which she has been placed. Somehow she transcends the mistreatment and humiliation and still manages to smite. Cabiria portrays the seamy or sour side of “the sweet life” of Rome in 1950s motion pictures. The film was a milestone in Fellini’s artistic growth and was a critical and box office success. Filmmaker Francois Truffaut wrote, “It’s possible that Cabiria is Fellini’s most uneven film, but its strong moments are so intense that I find it his best.” Dubbed in English. 111 minutes. Drama