Giulietta Masina won Best Actress at Cannes as the title character of one of Fellini's most haunting films. Oscar® winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria) is the tragic story of a naive prostitute searching for true love in the seediest sections of Rome. Criterion proudly presents the restored director's cut in a breathtaking new transfer.
Fellini masterpiece
I saw this film as a teenager and then not for the second time until some four decades later. It has not lost a trace of its power. If anything, it is better than ever, especially with this magnificently restored print. You are riveted by every scene. Masina's performance is something to behold. The editing alone is masterly. It left me speechless and devasted. "Sweet Charity," the US remake, has none of its power. See it and be amazed. All over again.
a $100.00 for a new copy?!!! Well, it is one of the greatest movies i'ver ever seen!
i saw this movie at film school and as soon as it ended, i stormed out the room, completely enthralled by the movie. people thought i hated it but the reason why i left was because i didn't want to hear any discussion from wannabe intellectual film students. i didn't want anyone to ruin my enchantment with this film becuase it was one of the greatest film i have ever seen (up there with lawrence of arabia, apocalypse now, ran, touch of evil, blade runner) except the epic thing about this film is not the cinematography but the actress' performance. if you are an actress and you want to see the greatest female performance off all time, watch this movie! i fell in love with her, not her looks but her spirit!
A master's touch
I saw 8 1/2 when I was a teenager but I never saw this one before. There was horror and humor juxtaposed. Fellini doesnt tell the story he lets you experience it subtly as when Oscar gets colder and colder. The only hint we get is that his relatives robbed his widowed mother and he wants to be alone or more get his revenge. Her devastation is total. His panoramic scenes of pancake rubble filled land where Cabiria has a shack on the outskirts of Rome is right for the postwar period. Massina was the kind of actress that is a tiny fraction of what we see now. I would have like to see more of the pimp and coke influence in the lives of these streetwalkers. Perhaps their judgment was compromised by the early exposure to that.
An excellent classic film
An excellent film, time didn't pass for it. The Criterion Collection edition is excellent, too. Giuletta Masina plays very subtil, and the others actors, too.
Emotionally overwhelming, artistically triumphant
This was the moment in which Fellini found his film language. This is still a "story" with a main character with whom the audience can identify. But as Bazin has explained, it was in this film that Fellini began to work in discreet narrative capsules, each of which has a certain autonomy. In a sense, in this movie Fellini achieves a perfect balance between abstraction and representation. He also moves beyond the (perhaps dated) sentimentality of "La Strada" towards emotion that gains power as it is filtered through tears, laughter, shadow, and light-- and one of cinema's most transcendent endings. This is the film with which to introduce a viewer to Fellini-- and perhaps to the Art Film in general.
