In a way "Nights of Cabiria" is the companion piece to "La Strada", both directed by Federico Fellini, both starring his wife and muse Giulietta Masina and both dealing with a woman and her struggle with life. And yet the movies conclude quite differently. Cabiria is one of those characters that really get under your skin in the progression of the film - it's a woman who seems difficult to understand at the beginning when she's saved from drowning, yet doesn't even have a word of thanks for her saviours and heads off ranting. What follows is grand character development. Episode by episode we get deeper in Cabiria's heart and mind, her hopes and dreams, see her praying for a miracle, but again and again she fails, is used, ridiculed, ignored. Cabiria is not just a naive girl stumbling into her doom, she rather seeks salvation in simplicity and belief when everything else shatters to pieces. She's actually quite a complex character - emotional, earthy and proud in her own way, yet vulnerable and always on the brink. And we are swept away with her when eventually that turn in her fate is actually happening, the change for which we've all been rooting by then.
It all leads up to one of the most striking final scenes in cinema history - Fellini's camera work and Masina's performance invoke pure movie magic: Never before is a greeting from a total stranger as heart-warming as here, never again will a well-timed nod into the camera be so electrifying as Cabiria's. Maybe you already know what I mean. In any case I conclude with: Buona sera!
It all leads up to one of the most striking final scenes in cinema history - Fellini's camera work and Masina's performance invoke pure movie magic: Never before is a greeting from a total stranger as heart-warming as here, never again will a well-timed nod into the camera be so electrifying as Cabiria's. Maybe you already know what I mean. In any case I conclude with: Buona sera!