49 Nights of Cabiria

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Michael · #26 Post by **Michael** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:15 pm

AMAZING indeed.

Having seen the film hundreds of times, I never once thought of Cabiria attempting to drown herself because that just doesn't fit in with her character.

Children claiming that Cabiria was alone because they didn't notice her with Giorgio before she was thrown into the river. What it seemed for Cabiria was a simple stroll along the river, not a big deal for anyone, esp children, to notice or even remember later. After Cabiria was thrown into the river, Giorgio darted off. If he was imaginary, then why did Cabiria have a picture of him in her home? Why did she continue to bitch about Giorgio? Even her friend Wanda mentioned him. I'm sorry but I simply can't see Cabiria as being delusional.

Answering your second question. Cabiria acted cold and blunt because she didn't want to show any sign of weakness and most of all, she was damn pissed off for an excellent reason - her purse was stolen, her life was in danger.

Annoyed that she still has to live in her damned world? Hmm, she's staunchly independent and expresses immeasurable pride in owning a house. Dancing in the streets, she expresses nothing but joy. The only question she really asks is the meaning of faith: either she finds it herself or prostitutes herself to church. She finds the answer with the help of music and birthday children awakening the night streets.

DeathDealer · #27 Post by **DeathDealer** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:14 pm

Nah, man. I still firmly believe I said. I mean Giorgio was the guy who left her, and afterwords she attempted such things. Comes home and continues to complain about him.

The character is not imaginary, but his presence in that situation is. I mean it makes no sense for the children to state she was alone, it seems totally irrelevant, and a small THANK YOU to her rescuers is not being weak-willed, just showing her gratitude.

mteller · #28 Post by **mteller** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:34 pm

I think you're reaching. Cabiria doesn't want to admit she was pushed in because she's embarrassed about it.

HerrSchreck · #29 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:34 pm

You're entitled to think whatever you want (thats the beauty of art), but I think you're hugely misreading the subtext of the film and her character.. a misread that shifts certain tectonic responsibilities of Whos Who and Whats What in Cabiria's world, and skews the narrative's EAT LIVE FUCK DANCE-- FIND HAPPINESS beauty. Cabiria is a great big little TRYING MACHINE. She is one unstoppable Huge Life Force in a tiny body, and the virtual point of the film is that no array of sinister onslaught can extinguish that Life Force.

Cabiria21 · #30 Post by **Cabiria21** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 10:45 pm

DeathDealer wrote:Just saw it. Fucking AMAZING. But an idea has been rattling in my brain ever since the film finished. Do you think that Cabiria was willingly trying to commit suicide at the beginning of the film and there was no Giorgio present at all, just her imagnation of him?

Reason 1) When the kids save her from the river, they claim there was no one with her. Just her by herself.

Reason 2) When she is brought back to life by the rescuers, she reacts in a very cold and blunt way. Unforunate that she has survived her suicide attempt and therefore annoyed that she still has to live in her damned world.

I mean think about it, she's a WHORE who we know very well dislikes her occuption and is longing for a way out. I think she makes up this Giorgio to be present for herself and make herself falsely believe she is not willingly giving up but pushed into it by others.

Reason 1) no, Giorgio booked ass in a different direction, and the kids found her somewhat down the river from where she fell in. They would have never seen him, they weren't observing the scene from afar or anything, they were fucking around like kids do and noticed her in the river.

Reason 2) She is cold and blunt to the fact that is recognized as one of those "streetwalkers" immediately after being resuscitated, it's a very big feeling of shame to be in that situation (probably because the leering adults believe she jumped in to kill herself).

I would say your theory is a pretty big reach...her boyfriend was pretty real, why would her fellow whoremates have seen him if he wasn't, and the fat whore who talks to her when Cabiria tries to break into her hut reacts like she knew this kind of act was inevitable with the kind of guy Cabiria has been hanging around with. Cabiria is just as blind to that fact as she will be at the end of the film.

DeathDealer · #31 Post by **DeathDealer** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:46 pm

Cabiria21 wrote:I would say your theory is a pretty big reach...her boyfriend was pretty real, why would her fellow whoremates have seen him if he wasn't, and the fat whore who talks to her when Cabiria tries to break into her hut reacts like she knew this kind of act was inevitable with the kind of guy Cabiria has been hanging around with. Cabiria is just as blind to that fact as she will be at the end of the film.

Giorgio is not imaginary, but his presence in that situation is.

Cabiria21 · #32 Post by **Cabiria21** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:56 pm

DeathDealer wrote:Giorgio is not imaginary, but his presence in that situation is.

Not at all. We'll just have to disagree.

DeathDealer · #33 Post by **DeathDealer** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 1:24 am

Guess so.

Thats the brilliance of film. To be able to come up with your own personal conclusion and have other people see it from a different light.

skuhn8 · #34 Post by **skuhn8** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 7:54 am

DeathDealer wrote:Thats the brilliance of film. To be able to come up with your own personal conclusion and have other people see it from a different light.

Interesting read, but nothing in the film to support it. Why would the kids have seen Giorgio? They weren't in the same vicinity.

Though Fellini certainly didn't shy away from the fantastical in his later films he always gave you a wink to let you know that you were in nether territory. Cabiria is still fairly well rooted in his neo-realism foundation (though not itself a neo-realist film). To each their own, but this seems like contrarian stubbornness at this point.

mteller · #35 Post by **mteller** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 2:59 pm

DeathDealer wrote:Thats the brilliance of film. To be able to come up with your own personal conclusion and have other people see it from a different light.

Well, yes, the brilliance of any film is that someone can come up with an unsupported, totally wrong interpretation and stick to it come hell or high water.

Hey, I think GIORGIO imagined CABIRIA! The whole movie is just Giorgio's fantasy.

Michael · #36 Post by **Michael** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:28 pm

You cracked me up, mteller. Thanks, I needed that.

HerrSchreck · #37 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 8:43 pm

mteller wrote:Hey, I think GIORGIO imagined CABIRIA! The whole movie is just Giorgio's fantasy.

That's demonstrably not true-- the little boys by the side of the river didn't witness any thought balloon coming out of Giorgios head.

A little known fact is that all the shot birds & bunnies in La regle du jeu are suicides. The little boys by the riverside in Nights of Cabiria never saw the hunting party.

DeathDealer · #38 Post by **DeathDealer** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:01 am

mteller wrote:
DeathDealer wrote:Thats the brilliance of film. To be able to come up with your own personal conclusion and have other people see it from a different light.
Well, yes, the brilliance of any film is that someone can come up with an unsupported, totally wrong interpretation and stick to it come hell or high water.

What you say is not fact. Weather I choose to believe it is up to me. Your so uptight and anal with some these movies that you tend lose out on alot of the enjoyment of it.

I know your you'll come back with a "I enjoy it just as much" comment, but frankly I could care less.

A couple of posts isn't going to change my opinion yet it hasn't nothing to do with stubboness

chaddoli · #39 Post by **chaddoli** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:09 am

Too many people of my generation have had their movie going lives completely ruined by Fight Club.

HerrSchreck · #40 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:29 am

DeathDealer wrote:What you say is not fact. Weather I choose to believe it is up to me. Your so uptight and anal with some these movies that you tend lose out on alot of the enjoyment of it.

I know your you'll come back with a "I enjoy it just as much" comment, but frankly I could care less.

A couple of posts isn't going to change my opinion yet it hasn't nothing to do with stubboness

Swimminghorses?

#41 Post by **Mr Sausage** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:43 am

deathDealer wrote:Reason 2) When she is brought back to life by the rescuers, she reacts in a very cold and blunt way. Unforunate that she has survived her suicide attempt and therefore annoyed that she still has to live in her damned world.

I'm pleased to be able to put one more large nail into your interpretation's coffin: in the water, she repeatedly calls out for help.

It's sad that someone could watch a movie about a character so bursting with life that, after suffering the most humiliating abuses, she can smile radiantly into the camera--could watch it, and come up with nothing but the most uninteresting banalities about a most unconvincing possible suicide attempt.

DeathDealer · #42 Post by **DeathDealer** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:19 am

Just because an opinion its not akin to your general assumption, you automatically deride anyone of a different viewpoint.

You guys are impossible.

#43 Post by **swo17** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:25 am

No they're not. This is all a dream....

Tom Hagen · #44 Post by **Tom Hagen** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:46 am

chaddoli wrote:Too many people of my generation have had their movie going lives completely ruined by Fight Club.

Roger Ebert's Fight Club review was prescient: "A lot of recent films seem unsatisfied unless they can add final scenes that redefine the reality of everything that has gone before; call it the Keyser Söze syndrome."

skuhn8 · #45 Post by **skuhn8** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 7:18 am

DeathDealer wrote:Just because an opinion its not akin to your general assumption, you automatically deride anyone of a different viewpoint.

You guys are impossible.

But why do you stick tenaciously to an interpretation that has no basis in what takes place in the film? Of course its stubbornness. You are on a forum for chrissakes! You spout something fanciful then at least back it up with some evidence that stands up. Every point you made fell apart and then you fall back on that lame-ass "it's my interpretation and you can't take that away from me; isn't art great!"

#46 Post by **Mr Sausage** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:58 pm

DeathDealer wrote:Just because an opinion its not akin to your general assumption, you automatically deride anyone of a different viewpoint.

You guys are impossible.

Don't make the mistake of thinking we're deriding your interpretation (which is what it is, not an opinion) because it's different. We're doing it because it's silly, because the evidence is scant, and because in spite of all of the aforementioned you've become doggedly defensive of it, for no other reason than because it's under attack. It's fine to hold different interpretations, but not to cling to them tenaciously as tho' your honour were at stake.

Napier · #47 Post by **Napier** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:21 pm

At least the one thing we can all agree on in this thread is that Cabiria is a great piece of cinema. And my favorite Fellini.

#48 Post by **swo17** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:23 pm

I disagree that it is your favorite Fellini.

Napier · #49 Post by **Napier** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:24 pm

swo17 wrote:I disagree that it is your favorite Fellini.

I agree to disagree.

HerrSchreck · #50 Post by **HerrSchreck** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:46 pm

I only agree and disagree-- and have opinions about-- those things witnessed by Small Italian Children On The Riverside.

All other world events can go rust to brown powder for all I care.

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49 Nights of Cabiria