NIGHTS OF CABIRIA Movie Review

Le Notti de Cabiria Cabiria

In one of the most heartbreakingly poignant performances in screen history, Giulietta Masina plays Cabiria, the Roman street prostitute whose grasp on the value of continuing to live is tested to the breaking point. Fellini described the character of Cabiria as “fragile, tender, and unfortunate; after all that has happened to her, and after the collapse of her naive dream of love, she still carries in her heart a touch of grace.” Nights of Cabiria has long been recognized as a masterpiece, but happily, in 1997, film archivists carefully and lovingly returned it to its original visual delicacy, and in addition restored seven minutes of critically important footage, never before seen in America. The result is a fuller and more complete narrative, making Cabiria’s great final sequence more powerfully moving than ever. (Nights of Cabiria was later used as the basis for Bob Fosse's stage and screen musical. Sweet Charity.) Academy Award, Best Foreign Language Film; Best Actress Award, Cannes Film Festival.

NEXT STOP … I Vitelloni, La Strada, Mamma Roma

1957 111 m/B IT Giulietta Masina, Amedeo Nazzari; D: Federico Fellini; W: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano; M: Nino Rota. Academy Awards ‘57: Best Foreign Film; Cannes Film Festival ‘57: Best Actress (Masina). VHS NOS, VYY, TPV