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Nights of Cabiria(1957)

Rialto Pictures

Not Rated
1h 50m
- Drama

Release Date: Oct 28, 1957 | Limited

100%
94%
8.1

A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.

Releases

Original Release | Oct 28, 1957

Box Office

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$6,663
Total US & Canada:
$766,530
Total International
$3,274
Total Worldwide:
$770,643

Director & Top Cast

Federico Fellini
Director

Francois Perier
Director

Franca Marzi
Director

Giulietta Masina
Maria 'Cabiria' Ceccarelli

Franca Marzi
Wanda

Dorian Gray
Jessy

Aldo Silvani

The wizard

Ennio Girolami

Amleto, 'il magnaccia'

Mario Passante

Uncle of Amleto

Christian Tassou

Amedeo Nazzari

Alberto Lazzari

Gianni Baghino

Franco Balducci

Spectator on the Stage of the Cinema

Ciccio Barbi

Man on the Stage

Luciano Bonanni

Pascello

Jusy Boncinelli

Loretta Capitoli

Rosy

Leo Catozzo

The Man with the Sack

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 1.33 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: Italy

Summaries

Plot Summary

A happy, laughing Cabiria (Giulietta Masina) is standing on a river bank with her current boyfriend and live-in lover, Giorgio (Franco Fabrizi). Suddenly he pushes her into the river and steals her purse which is full of money. She cannot swim and nearly drowns, but is rescued by a group of young boys and revived at the last possible moment by helpful ordinary people who live a little further down the river. In spite of just saving her life, she treats them with disdain and starts looking for Giorgio.Cabiria returns to her small home, but Giorgio has disappeared. She is bitter, and when her best friend and neighbor, Wanda (Franca Marzi) tries to help her get over him, Cabiria shoos her away and remains disgruntled. She continues to ply her trade as a prostitute. One night, she is outside a fancy nightclub and witnesses a fight between famous movie star, Alberto Lazzari (Amedeo Nazzari), as he's dumped by his girlfriend. The differences in appearance between the glamorous girlfriend in a mink coat and the disheveled and short Cabiria are stark. The jilted Lazzari takes the starstruck Cabiria to another club and then to his house, where Cabiria is astounded by the opulence of his house. As the two are finally becoming closer after a rather standoffish few hours, Lazzari's girlfriend returns and Cabiria is shuffled off to the bathroom, unable to consummate with a movie star.Later, a church procession passes the hangout area for the town prostitutes. As her associates mock the Church, Cabiria is drawn to the procession. Just as she is about to join the procession, another john comes and she gets in his truck instead. As she heads home later that night, she sees a man giving food to the poor people living in caves near her house. She has never seen this man before, but she is impressed by his charity towards others. When she goes to church with her friends, she prays for a chance to better her life.Cabiria goes to a magic show, and the magician (Aldo Silvani) drags her up on stage and hypnotizes her. As the audience laughs, she acts out her desires to be married and live a happy life. Furious at having been taken advantage of for the audience's amusement, she leaves in a huff. Outside the theater, a man named Oscar (François Périer) is waiting outside to talk to her. He was in the audience and he says he agrees with her that it was not right for everyone to laugh, but believes that fate brought them together. They go for a drink, and at first she is cautious and suspicious, but after several meetings she falls passionately in love with him and they are to be married after only a few weeks. Cabiria is delighted and sells her home and takes out all her money from the bank. After they are married, she offers to give Oscar 700,000 lira cash, but he declines. However, during a walk in a wooded area, on a cliff overlooking a lake,[2] Oscar becomes distant and starts acting nervous. Cabiria realizes that just like her earlier lover, Oscar intends to push her over the cliff and steal her money. She throws her purse at his feet, sobbing in convulsions on the ground as he takes the money and abandons her.She later picks herself up and stumbles out of the wood in tears. In the film's famous last sequence, Cabiria walks the long road back to town when she is met by a group of young people riding scooters, playing music, and dancing. They happily form an impromptu parade around her until she begins to smile through her tears.

Storyline

Practicing the world's oldest profession in the archaeological walk of Rome's Parco di Porta Capena, the trusting, stubbornly-optimistic streetwalker Cabiria refuses to lose faith in love. After escaping death by the skin of her teeth, the hurt and momentarily-disenchanted Cabiria continues to confront life with a mixture of naivete and arrogance. One evening she ventures into the elegant Via Veneto and gets picked up by suave film star Alberto Lazzari. Disappointment awaits once more, and as poor Cabiria prays to Virgin Mary for guidance and a blessing, the man of her prayers, Oscar D'Onofrio, barges into her life after a chance encounter at a vaudeville theatre. But do miracles happen? — Nick Riganas Cabiria is a wide-eyed waif, a streetwalker living in a poor section of Rome where she owns her little house, has a bank account, and dreams of a miracle. A boyfriend steals 40,000 lire from her and nearly drowns her, a movie star on the Via Veneto takes her home with him, at a local shrine she seeks the Madonna's intercession, then she meets an accountant who's seen her, hypnotized on a vaudeville stage, acting out her heart's longings. He courts her. Did fate lead to their meeting? Is this finally a man who appreciates her for who she is? —