Nights of Cabiria [Le Notti di Cabiria] ***** (1957, Giulietta Masina, Amedeo Nazzari, François Périer, Franca Marzi) – Classic Movie Review 627

Italian maestro director Federico Fellini’s 1957 classic won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 1958 Academy Awards. This admittedly sentimental drama about waifish Italian prostitute Maria ‘Cabiria’ Ceccarelli (Giulietta Masina), a wide-eyed streetwalker with a heart of gold wandering the streets of Rome looking for true love, is turned into something really special by inspired co-writer/ director Fellini and his wife Masina.

Cabiria owns her own little house in a poor section of Rome, where she dreams of a miracle, even asking the Madonna’s help at a local shrine. But she finds only heartbreak as she is shamelessly exploited and betrayed by various wicked men, Alberto Lazzari (played by Amedeo Nazzari), a movie star on the Via Veneto who takes her home with him, a boyfriend who steals 40,000 lire from her and nearly drowns her and an apparently regular guy Oscar D’Onofrio (François Périer), an accountant who has seen her on a vaudeville stage.

Despite the fragrant backgrounds and Fellini’s rarefied concerns, Nights of Cabiria is, beneath the gloss and typically Fellini-esque flashes of style and artistry, at heart high-quality, top-class soap opera. However, though perhaps not quite as dazzling and brilliant as many judged it in 1957, and certainly not quite in the same class as its predecessor La Strada (1954), it is still highly entertaining and most often very affecting.

And, above all, Masina is extremely touching, giving an unforgettable, glorious tour-de-force performance. She won the Best Actress award at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. She had previously played La prostituta Cabiria in Fellini’s The White Sheikh (1952).

Also Nights of Cabiria does look and sound great: Nino Rota’s thrilling score and Piero Gherardi’s glorious production designs and costumes are absolutely impeccable.

The film story and screenplay are based on a novel by Maria Molinari. Pier Paolo Pasolini is one of the four credited screenwriters, along with Fellini, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli.

It has a 110-minute running time, but look out for the 1998 117-minute Restored Director’s Cut version, which was released in cinemas.

It was sort of remade in the US as the musical Sweet Charity (1969), with Shirley MacLaine, via the vintage Broadway stage show.

Fellini (born on 20 January 1920 in Rimini) died on October 31 1993, aged 73. Masina (born on 22 February 1921) died soon afterwards on March 23 1994, also aged 73.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 627 derekwinnert.com