Le notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria). 1957. Italy. Directed by Federico Fellini. Screenplay by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano. With Giulietta Masina, Amadeo Nazzari, Franca Marzi, François Périer. 4K digital restoration courtesy Rialto Pictures. In Italian; English subtitles. 117 min.
The nights of Cabiria, a prostitute in Rome, often end in despair, but there’s always something unbreakable about her. This resilient character, immortalized by Giulietta Masina’s wholehearted performance (which won her the Best Actress award at Cannes), first appeared in a brief cameo in The White Sheik (1952). That brief appearance made its mark, and when Fellini met a prostitute who recounted her stories while he was making Il Bidone (1955), the idea for this film was born. The heartbreaking tale became the second Fellini film to win an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was familiar with the language of Rome’s underworld, helped in writing dialogue for the film.
4K digital restoration screening in advance of its New York theatrical premiere in late December