Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"Nights of Cabiria" is one of Fellini's masterpieces. I love this film. Giulietta Masina gives a superb and touching performance here, under the direction of one the greatest filmmakers, her husband Federico Fellini. The film is full of compassion and tenderness for the characters. Her beautiful warm smile, after having lost everything at the end is very moving, I wanted to reach through the screen and embrace her. This film and La Strada are my favourite two Fellini films.

NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, Fellini sixth feature film, which marks that he has assertively reached the full- blown phrase in his creativity and sleight-of-hand at the age of 37, and anticipates the acme of his career, LA VOLCE VITA (1960) and 8 AND A HALF (1963). The story (with Pasolini inside the coterie as a collaborator), is a tale of woe about a roadside streetwalker Cabiria (Masina) in Rome, whose real name is Maria Ceccarelli.In the opening long shot, we see Cabiria gambols with his beau on a Sunny day in the field near a river, and quick as lightning, he grabs her handbag and pushes her into the water. Cabiria is almost drowned, the same course of events will (almost) replicate itself in the arresting culmination, this time, with another suitor, a well-groomed but greasy self-claimed accountant Oscar (Périer). Why Cabiria hasn't learn anything from her miseries? It is much easier to shoot out pointers in post- mortem, in fact, as we audience follows closely to these non-interrelated episodes of Cabiria's experiences, her wretched destiny doesn't strike more like a subjectively injudicious decision than a fusillade of flak targeting at the injustice of contemporary society and the worst of human vice.Cabiria is petite, petulant and starry-eyed, apart from a narrow escape from death thanks to her dastard boyfriend, she is perfectly content in her own achievement, her self-reliant means of earning secures her a house of her own and some savings in the bank, even during her serendipitous "one-night-stand" with a famous movie star, Alberto Lazzari (Nazzari in his Erroyl Flynn suaveness), in his palatial villa, she is not ashamed of her bog-standard house. Only when she peers from the keyhole of the star's bathroom when Alberto romantically reconciles with his trophy girlfriend Jessy (Gray), she realises there is something missing in her life.A pilgrimage with other working girls jolts her out of her hard earned fulfilment, she transforms from a non-believer to a devotee, daydreams a miracle will bestow on her. After religious epiphany, next in line is prestidigitation, Fellini cunningly alludes to the collusion between them, religion seduces a simple soul and illusion brings her the undoing. In the hypnotic performance, a cynical Cabiria unwittingly reveals herself, the inner child, a love-longing Maria Ceccarelli, which instigates Oscar, a spectator in the audience to conspire his act. Since manifestly Cabiria is not an accomplice of the magician (Silvani), then her state-of-hypnosis is indeed real, which is boldly against the common savvy, and can be perceived as a further tactic to turn realness-and-illusion topsy-turvy, with the sudden arrival of a Prince Charming, willing to marry her and doesn't want to know anything about her past, only with an ulterior motive.Giulietta Masina, what can I say, such a godsend to her hubby, a force of nature can effortlessly entice a viewer to vicariously discern and undergo her character's emotional trajectory, all the more she provoke immense sympathy along the way, the suspense-heightened final revelation is so gut-wrenching to watch yet it is completely captivating and emotive (bolstered by Nino Rota's sublimely emotionally manipulative score). What a triumphant performance, Cannes' BEST ACTRESS honour has never been so worthy!NIGHTS OF CABIRIA won BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE in the Oscar race, a consecutive second win for Fellini after LA STRADA (1954), unlike its tragic protagonist Gesumina, also played by Masina, who succumbs to the hardship and abandonment, in the coda, Cabiria manages to squeeze a smile through her tears with a parade of people singing and dancing around her, like a phoenix back from the ash, the message is uplifting, she may be homeless and penniless, but she has a true friend Wanda (an ace Marzi, in her very naturalistic mien) to rely on, she can go on working the next day and start every from the scratch, what can not kill you only makes you stronger, girl! Such a potent feminism manifesto, one might not expect it from a Fellini's creation.

I saw this movie for the first time last night, and I have to post my first review on the site to say it is really wonderful. Giulietta Masina's performance is truly one of the most impressive I've ever seen - her face is as expressive as Buster Keaton's or Charlie Chaplin's.The movie is a deceptively simple story about the day-to-day encounters of a prostitute who does the best she can to make a living and maintain her hopes and dreams of a better life. Her relationships with her neighbors, friends, and street-corner associates are a major focus, as are her relationships with the many men that come and go in her life. In the latter regard, it is obvious that this film was the inspiration for many other plays and films, including Sweet Charity. The series of people encountered by Cabiria in the movie shows us the full range of human reaction to life's adversity - some respond with cynicism and prey on others without remorse, some respond with generosity and hope, some respond by clinging to certain belief systems that don't really help them in a material way, etc. Cabiria definitely stands out as a unique character within the gritty, grimy community of post-war Rome, where there are stark differences between people of different classes and livelihoods. We can see that she is a good person living in a world that is not always humane or fair.I won't give away the ending, but I will say that it took a lot of creativity and inspiration to include the ending of this movie as it is - I'm sure it was as startling and unexpected to audiences in 1957 as it is emotionally moving still today.The direction, photography, and acting are all first-rate in this classic. Everybody involved was obviously engaged in a labor of love. I cannot recommend it more highly.

From director Federico Fellini (Amarcord), this is another film, in the Italian language, that I found inside the pages of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it is one I liked the sound of as well. Basically Maria 'Cabiria' Ceccarelli (BAFTA nominated Giulietta Masina) is the wide-eyed street walking prostitute with not many friends but a seemingly good outlook on life, and despite living on the poor end of Rome she does have a small house, a bank account and her dreams to keep her going. The story follows Cabiria through a few nights (and days) spending time with various men who have the same thing in common, they all treat her rotten and disappear very quickly. These mistreating men include a man who steals 40,000 lire and almost drowns her with her inability to swim, a movie star who pays little attention to her, and a man of god giving to the poor but again not drawing to her in any way. All Cabiria can do is spend a little time with her friend Wanda (Franca Marzi), and religious services to pray to the holy one in order to have her dream of a better life come true, including finding a man who truly loves her. After helping an illusionist/hypnotist act on stage she meets accountant Oscar D'Onofrio (François Périer) who seems genuinely kind and as they get to know each other liking the idea of a future together, at first she is cautious and suspicious, but she does fall in love with him. They marry within only a few weeks, and during their honeymoon they spend time walking through the woods and towards a cliff overlooking the lake, and Oscar becomes very suspicious indeed. Cabiria realises he intends to push her off the cliff and steal her money, so she just gives up her purse and lets him get away, but walking down the long road back home she can only smile through her tears in a parade of people, she must be hopeful that things will be alright. Also starring Amedeo Nazzari as Alberto Lazzari, Aldo Silvani as The Wizard, Dorian Gray as Jessy, Ennio Girolami as Amleto, Mario Passante as Uncle of Amleto and Pina Gualandri as Matilda the prostitute. In the leading role Masina, also Fellini's wife at the time, is wonderful with her quirky facial expressions, venerability and child like attitude, she is pretty much the key to why this film is so watchable, the character having all these misusing men are the most interesting scenes, it is a thought provoking and enjoyable masterpiece, a great drama. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film from any Source. Very good!