Nine stars. Fellini's character study of a prostitute, desperate for a life
of normal affection, is his second monumental film. La Strada was the first,
and both star Giulietta Masina. I'm not sure any director has ever had a
better muse. Here, Masina carries the picture by herself. There's no one like
Anthony Quinn to help out. And she nails it! She is wiley, naive, playful,
mean, devoted, uncaring, resourceful, and helpless all rolled together. The
scenes with the other prostitutes, waiting around for johns are jubilant and
heartbreaking at the same time. The weird interludes all bring out the sense
of desperation that Cabiria has begun to feel as a woman, now in her 30s, who
makes her living by sex appeal. This includes the restored "man with the bag"
sequence just as vitally as the bit with the movie star, and the church
sequence. I listened to the extra where De Laurentiis talks about taking out
the "man with the bag" because, he said, it stopped the story. He was wrong. It drove a nail into the central woe of Cabiria, who saw there the fate that
awaited her. And, in the face of her nightmare coming true, do we see any
resolution? The mystic closing sequence raises the film from being just a
character study to one that deals with the eternal hope of the human spirit.
The film lost a little from me because of how screechy so much of the dialog was. But that's a pretty small complaint for a really brilliant film. 26 March 2024.
The film lost a little from me because of how screechy so much of the dialog was. But that's a pretty small complaint for a really brilliant film. 26 March 2024.