Fellini's Nights of Cabiria

Often obscured in the wake of such great works as La Strada, La Dolce Vita, Juliet of the Spirits, and 8 ½; nevertheless, Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria deserves more recognition for its own artistry and genius. Certainly, it received the 1958 Oscar for Best Foreign Film and has recently been restored and re-released to the big screen to wonderful critical acclaim, as well as being the first Fellini film to receive the special Criterion touch with extra features on a DVD edition. The best part of the recent editions is that the wonderful seven minute "man with a sack" sequence has been restored.

This sequence shows a saintlike man who feeds the homeless who live in caves on the outskirts of Rome. Until the restoration, the "man with a sack" sequence had only been seen by a small test audience before its formal debut at Cannes. While some have speculated that the Catholic Church was behind the butchering due to the implication that its priests were being criticized for lack of social involvement, the Fellini assistant gives a more plausible argument in an interview contained on the Criterion DVD.

He claims that both producer Dino De Laurentiis and Fellini were concerned that a slower pacing of the film would challenge audiences, so they made the cut. On the same disc, De Laurentiis amplifies this story, revealing that he was more adamant about releasing the shorter version than his director; in fact, De Laurentiis stole the negative to the sequence so that Fellini had no choice but to release the shortened version. That was unfortunate because this sequence adds great depth to the film and explains a great deal about Cabiria's growth.

At the center of the film is Cabiria, played by Fellini's wife, the incomparable Giulietta Masina, who has aptly been universally compared to Chaplin's Little Tramp. Just imagining Chaplin and Masina appearing together in the same film makes me feel like uncontrollably laughing and crying at the same time.

Masina is in top form here in Fellini's final realistic film, her expressive face communicating so many comic moments with an underlying poignancy. Her eyebrows alone are textbook examples for pantomime artists to learn how to express the internal. Observing Masina's wondrous facial expressions and body language will often be more revealing than reading the subtitles, as she remains in total control of her body. It's like watching the human spirit itself being exposed on celluloid. Of course a great deal of the credit must be shared with Fellini, as he would push his wife to frustration with far more takes than he would lesser actors.

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