To celebrate the 100th birthday of Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini, a number of Fellini classics will be shown again in cinemas around Hong Kong. ‘Nights of Cabiria’ is an interesting candidate of Fellini’s wonderful oeuvre.
While cinema lovers around the world are familiar with Fellini’s imaginative style, often characterized by its dream-like tendency, it is easy to overlook that Fellini started from an origin of Italian Neorealism. This film style from the 1940s strove for the most hard-core realism known to film – from the ‘un-cinematic’ casual gestures from de Sica films to the uncompromising scenes common in Rossellini’s films, the artistic movement built up on the influence of von Stroheim and Renoir, and aimed for a kind of documentary realism unprecedented for cinema. The young Fellini has worked with Roberto Rossellini, as a writer for the Neorealist film ‘Paisan’. Hence ‘The Night of Cabiria’ is seen by many as an interesting work in Fellini’s cinema, as it combines two apparently irreconcilable style – his later signature style and the realist style where he originated from. Yet the result is not an inconsistent film: the Fellini masterpiece is a sincere outlook of how one may have survived in a harsh and uncompromising environment.
One can easily feel that Fellini has expressed a sense of pessimism in ‘Nights of Cabiria’, yet it is likely a commitment to the style of Italian Neorealism rather than his personal outlook on life. It is as if the filmmaker is placing the protagonist, Cabiria (starring Giulietta Masina) in a social experiment. Cabiria was a sympathetic character for many, she was a happy-go-lucky kind of person and she was willing to fight for a better future, quite like a Sirkian woman. That reminds me of a later film by Godard, ‘Vivre Sa Vie’, and Nana (played by Anna Karina) was actually quite similar to Cabiria, though not as comedic. By placing Cabiria in a genuinely rough and unsympathetic world, one can see that she was as street-smart as she could be, as it was the only way for her to survive ‘on the streets’. Many viewers have expressed that Cabiria resembles a Chaplin character, and indeed her gestures were not very different from the Little Tramp. While the iconic character is very likeable, one should also note the subtlety offered by Chaplin. The comedic character possessed a kind of passive-aggressiveness in all his adventures, and he was willing to play dirty and rough when the situation called for it (albeit in a funny way).
Cabiria was as intelligent, yet she had to face a lot of misfortunes, some caused by the economical situations reflected in the film, other caused by the various characters in the film. She has been taken advantage of all the time, even when she was making attempts to connect with other people and to cultivate genuine relationships (the fact that Cabiria was working as a prostitute also signified her instrumental value as perceived by others in the film). Fellini placed the ultimate irony at the point when Cabiria finally felt serene and thought of a more fulfilling life, she was in a state of trance caused by a magician, under the watchful eyes of some curious audience looking for entertainment. She could not find happiness or fulfilment in reality, and even when she could at least imagine that in her mind, she was still being taken advantage of.
The rather dark tone of the film took an existential turn, when Cabiria discovered that, after the events of the whole film, she was again facing a man who would give a false promise of loving her, only having an intention to take away her money and possessions. The rather absurd scenario alluded to Nietzsche’s idea of eternal recurrence, or maybe the ‘Kenny dies at every episode’ scenario in South Park. Literally, Cabiria’s life was going nowhere, and she was living her life one day at a time. Fellini was wise in the sense that he did not offer the audience a deus ex machina or an optimistic ending here. Whether the ending is good or bad is not the most important issue, what matters is the reflection that can be offered to the audience. Cabiria finally came to the realization of the absurdity of life, and that would simply not be a miracle and then everything become okay. In the memorable final scene, she gave the answer for enduring the impermanence of human existence: a smile through the tears. The journey of life is long, and only by staying in the struggle will one have the last laugh.
by Ed Law
Film Analysis
