Nights of Cabiria (1957), directed by Federico Fellini, features a prostitute who struggles to make a living for herself in post-war Italy. She is extremely poor, yet her financial situation is in better shape than her romantic life. She has an idealistic vision of love, and throughout the film, she is crushed multiple times by predatory or manipulative men. The film is bookended by two scenes which closely mirror each other in terms of action; in each, a man takes advantage of Cabiria. Yet, the manners in which these scenes unfold are visually unique from one another in such a way that both reveals the character arc of the protagonist and establishes distinct tones at the opening and close of the film.
In the opening sequence, we see Cabiria dancing with her boyfriend Giorgio by a river. The camera then tracks Cabiria down to the side of the river, and Giorgio follows her soon after. Giorgio wears dark sunglasses. Clearly, he’s not to be trusted, or at the very least his intentions are unclear. The scene then cuts back to a wider frame, and it’s emphasized how isolated the two of them are. Cabiria is alone with Giorgio when he pushes her into the river and runs up the hill, never to be seen again. In the background there is a small crop of buildings in the largely rural surroundings. Cabiria is ultimately saved from drowning, and once she’s been revived, she angrily tells off the people who have saved her and ventures out to find Giorgio. She is still naive at this point of the film, and the camera is distant from her in the buildup to her near-death experience, choosing instead to highlight Giorgio, his eyes covered as he checks for potential witnesses to the crime.
The final sequence plays out in much the same way, with Cabiria getting swindled. However, the act is not comical as it was in the opening. Here Cabiria walks through the woods with Oscar, her new boyfriend for whom she’s sold her house to start a new life with. They walk towards the edge of a cliff. When they get to the cliff, we see the back of Cabiria as she looks out across the water. In front of her is a vast landscape, even more remote than in the opening sequence. The camera is closer to the actors’ faces this time, and we can see the anxiety on Oscar’s face as well as the fear in Cabiria’s as she realizes she has been manipulated again. While Oscar is present in the scene, the camera is always following Cabiria, and she is often in the center of the frame. The scene then cuts between Cabiria on her knees and Oscar standing and looking nervous. Oscar is shot from slightly above, and the camera does not make him an imposing figure in the scene. Cabiria realizes herself what is happening, and she takes initiative and throws her money at Oscar, and she nearly jumps off the cliff herself. She has more agency here, as opposed to her passivity at the start of the film when she willingly goes to the edge of the river as Giorgio tells her to.
After Oscar takes her money, the camera then follows Cabiria as she walks through dark woods onto a road, where she is met by a parade of musicians. The other actors dance and spin around Cabiria as she walks straight down the road, and the camera tracks her path. The final thirty seconds is a close-up tracking shot on Cabiria’s face, and she smiles briefly at the camera before the film ends. She can deal with what life throws at her. While she might be more careful about falling in love, there’s no implication that she will throw out her original idealism. She literally picks herself off of the ground and emerges from a dark wood and onto a road, signaling her readiness to continue with her journey and the notion that the worst is behind her.
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