Feature

You Ain't Seen Me, Right? - Nights of Cabiria (1957)

Daniel

26th November 2010

While we all get blindsided by the 6 trailers, 9 TV spots and 14 international posters for each new major cinema release, You Ain't Seen Me, Right? is the weekly feature that pays tribute to those films that deserve more recognition.

You Ain't Seen Me, Right? is brought to you by Daniel Palmer, of Part-Time Infidel web fame. He puts words in a really good order.

Nights of CabiriaNights of Cabiria (1957)

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Produced by Dino De Laurentiis, who died earlier this month at the age of 91, Nights of Cabiria marks the point at which Italian auteur Federico Fellini broke with the country's Neo-Realist traditions, typified by Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945). Starring his wife, the peerless Giulietta Masina, Fellini's fifth feature began to delve into the fantasy and glamour that would reach its zenith in La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8 and 1/2 (1963). Masina, who collaborated seven times with her husband, may not rank among the legendary Italian sex symbols, but her face is one of the most iconic in the history of cinema, due in large part to her mesmerizing appearance in La Strada (1954).

Cabiria (Masina) is saved from drowning after being mugged and thrown into a river - it transpires that the perpetrator was her boyfriend, who knew she cannot swim. Cabiria ekes out a living among Rome's working girls, meeting with men from all walks of life, from a truck driver to a fading matinee idol. Cabiria presents a worldly, affable demeanor to the world, but she is a wide-eyed innocent whose trusting disposition is constantly abused.

Hiiiiiigh five!



Though he was determined to surpass the brutal matter-of-factness of Rossellini and his ilk, the social documentarian in Fellini is still apparent in some of his stylistic choices. His camera hovers in the middle distance, carefully scanning the characters as they navigate the crumbling buildings and bomb sites of post-war Rome, reserving close-ups for moments of particular poignancy. Fellini's new sensibility reached its fullest expression in Aldo Tonti's stylish photography and Nino Roto's wistful score, which invest Cabiria's tawdry world with a downtrodden romanticism.

But that is not to say that Nights of Cabiria romanticizes its subject - this is not a rose-tinted depiction of prostitution in the vein of Pretty Woman (1990). Cabiria is not an alluring figure; she is gauche and disheveled, constantly seeing portents of her lonely future in the aging, embittered streetwalkers she encounters, stumbling from one assignation to the next with childlike insouciance. Masina's impeccable comic timing and striking features - the soulful eyes and winsome smile - lend a resonance to Cabiria's obtuse, often clownish, actions that transcends language. It is not hard to see why she was regarded as the 'female Chaplin' - she had a face the camera adored.

Fellini scandalized the Italian establishment by daring to depict the suffering of those living on the margins of society, people so poor they were reduced to living underground. Fellini's attitude towards Catholicism's grip on the Italian psyche - which can be described as, at best, ambivalent - is mirrored in the scene where Cabiria and her friends attend a religious ceremony. For all their bohemian sensibilities, they still view the empty spectacle of organised religion as a panacea, still hope to be saved from penury by the good graces of a benevolent creator. Fellini's abiding fascination with all that is grotesque, absurd and unorthodox in life is explored here with masterful élan.
There we have it - seek out this film, give it some attention, wine and dine it and then just watch from a dark, quiet corner as it privately entertains you. More from You Ain't Seen Me, Right? next Friday.

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