The Nights of Existence, Desperation, and Redemption of Cabiria
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In 1957, during Italy’s unprecedented economic boom, Federico Fellini directed and released the classic film Nights of Cabiria. Fellini puts the spotlight on the underclass sex workers and tells the unfortunate story of a Roman prostitute named Cabiria. An innocent and gullible woman, she dreams of a peaceful life with her lover, even though men have always abandoned her. At the beginning of the film, her boyfriend pushes her into the river, and other such humiliating experiences occur again and again. She meets a famous actor on the street who invites her to his home but then locks her in the bathroom; she encounters a bank worker in a theater, accepts his proposal and sells all of her possessions for a new life, but the man steals her money and almost kills her. With nothing left to lose, Cabiria cries frantically. As she wanders alone on the road, a group of lively men and women pass by, singing happily. The joyful atmosphere infects Cabiria, and the final shot shows Cabiria looking directly into the camera with tears of joy again. The film brought Fellini worldwide fame and made him the representative of the new generation of filmmakers in post-war Italy who started to take careful observation of the underclass and the real social context. Nights of Cabiria reveals the exploitation of female sex workers caused by the rising entertainment and sex industries and the lack of governmental regulation on prostitution in post-war Italy, and Fellini uncovers the paradoxes of material prosperity through the collapse of old moral values and the failure of religious systems during the post-war rapid economic growth.
The post-war period of Italy’s economic boom stimulated the development of the entertainment and sex industries, but the government did not impose effective regulations and restrictions that protected the lower-class workers in these industries. Therefore, workers, such as prostitutes, were subjected to exploitation, oppression, and even criminalization during this era. This is reflected in the movie, which was shot and released in the 1950s, more than ten years after the end of WWII. During this period, the Italians’ sexuality, and eagerness for consumer goods, which had been suppressed for a long time by Mussolini’s fascist regime, were unleashed. [1] The fall of the fascist regime promoted the development of the tertiary sector of economy, with the entertainment and sex industries becoming the most prosperous ones. [2]
In the movie, Cabiria meets Lazzari, a handsome and famous movie star. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Lazzari takes Cabiria back to his home and treats her with great care, sharing a meal and claiming that he wants to spend the night with her. [3] Innocently, Cabiria believes that she is about to receive the love and wealth she desires. However, Lazzari’s ex-girlfriend Jessie runs back to his house, which makes Lazzari lock Cabiria in the bathroom. He gets back together with Jessie and leaves Cabiria alone with a broken heart and tears for all night. She is eventually sent away silently by Lazzari while his girlfriend sleeps. [4] In this plot, Lazzari, a movie star rich in fame and money, plays the relationship with the two women as a superior in the power relationship. He betrays his girlfriend after a quarrel, brings another woman home, and then crushes Cabiria’s dream by locking her in the bathroom. For movie stars like Lazzari, the fast-growing economy and entertainment industry had a positive impact on them. It has created an extra upper class, allowing famous movie actors and entertainment industry workers to live in big houses and enjoy a life of luxury and power over women. On the other hand, for sex workers in lower social classes like Cabiria, even though their industry is growing rapidly, they are the underlings of power. With a meager income, they are humbled to find clients and work without a contract, and if they give their hearts and hopes like Cabiria, they may be emotionally manipulated, while their “clients” who oppress them pay no price. The unequal power relations and trading conditions result in the serious exploitation of sex workers, both physically and psychologically.
The sharp contradiction between the wealth and luxury lives of entertainment workers and the exploitation of sex workers stems from the failure of the Italian government’s prostitution control policy since the unification of Italy. In 1888, the Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi first enacted the “Crispi Law” to regulate prostitution, which criminalized the commercial sex trade in brothels [5] and established the sifilicomi system to quarantine prostitutes in special hospitals and prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. However, corruption within the Italian government and pedanticism within the medical system led to the ineffectiveness of the Crispi Law, and prostitution still flourished in brothels. [6] Then, after Mussolini came to power, the fascist government chose to encourage prostitution, and state-run brothels with licensed prostitutes were permitted. The fascist government hoped that the legalization of prostitutes would be part of a policy to promote the ideal masculine and superior Fascist male figure. However, the regime did not see the contradiction in promoting prostitution for Fascist men and enforcing the expected figure of a “good wife” for Fascist women. Therefore, in the later years of the regime’s policy, there was a spread of unlicensed and illegal prostitution in Italian society, and many women who followed the Fascist definition of “public order and good customs” were drawn into the illegal prostitution by procuring. It was to the detriment of women, their families, and society. [7]
In the post-war period in Italy after the collapse of the Fascist regime, the commercial sex industry continued to operate legally and flourish in the brothels because the new government did not introduce a new policy on prostitution, and street prostitution, which was not legalized during the Fascist period, became popular because of the lack of a strict Fascist police system. Even at the risk of being discovered and controlled by the police, many prostitutes walked on the streets at night and solicited their own customers in order to avoid the severe oppression and procuring in brothels. The phenomenon is reflected in Nights of Cabiria. On the second night of Cabiria’s date with Oscar, she joins the ranks of her fellow prostitutes and talks about her dating experience. Her fellow prostitutes laugh at the fact that Cabiria was cheated multiple times and is returning to prostitution, while she firmly rebuffs her friends, emphasizing that she met a good man who is rich and well-educated. [8] Just as Cabiria is about to argue with her fellow prostitutes, the police arrive to put an end to the chaos. All the prostitutes flee and hide in the bushes and trees. [9] Compared to the strict fascist police system, the control of street prostitution by the Italian police in the post-war period was only a form of intimidation, so the arrival of the police in the film only caused the prostitutes to run and hide and did not result in their criminalization and imprisonment. This plot not only shows the chaos within the sex industry in the post-war Italian government, but also the irresponsibility of the controlling authorities. Instead of regulating and controlling the street prostitution industry, which was irregular and put women in a position of exploitation, they allowed it to grow and flourish. The situation continued until 1958, a year after the release of Nights of Cabiria, when government introduced the Merlin Law to effectively regulate prostitution. The legislation prohibited brothels and introduced the crime of “exploitation of prostitution” to punish procuring, [10] so that severe physical and mental exploitation towards underclass prostitutes was officially criminalized, and eventually decreased.
Cabiria belongs to the Italian underclass of street walkers, a group of people who are extremely stigmatized and disrespected in Italian society because of the practice of prostitution in the change of legislation. However, Fellini does not portray Cabiria as a sycophantic, grasping, and lecherous prostitute in the traditional and conservative perception. On the contrary, Cabiria is talkative, yet naive and optimistic. She is always hopeful and is not ashamed of her career as a prostitute. In the film, Cabiria’s movements and eyes are often filled with the most genuine and innocent emotions. For example, when Cabiria decides to get married with Oscar, she runs back to her village and says excitedly to her friend Wanda, “I’m getting married! Oscar and I are buying a store in Grotta Ferrata. He’s almost signed the contract! Without me knowing, he arranged it all: a store, a house!” [11] At this moment, Cabiria’s eyes reveal joy and passion, filled with pure desire for the future of life and marriage, like a young girl in love for the first time. The infectious power of this line makes the audience wish her well from the deep part of their hearts, and they would turn from disliking her as a mercenary to pitying and sympathizing with her. The contrast between Cabiria’s figure and the traditionally-perceived image of a prostitute at the time of the movie’s release reflects the non-reality of the Italian underclass symbol. For prostitutes like Cabiria, the constant descent into exploitation and tragedy was prevalent in Italian society, and from this perspective, Fellini’s presentation about the three frauds and abandonments experienced by Cabiria is in line with neorealism. However, he is anti-realistic in the construction of Cabiria’s psychological conflicts. He concentrates on Cabiria’s release and openness following her self-struggle, enabling her to find peace and redemption despite her continued terrible blunders, as well as preventing her from becoming numb and degenerative. This tremendous process of self-adaptation and conviction appears improbable in actual life.
Fellini’s purpose in portraying Cabiria as an anti-realistic figure is to uncover the failure of Cabiria’s spiritual pillar, the religious system, through the contrast between Cabiria’s positive beliefs and hopes and the negative harm she suffers in reality. Religion tries to play the role of a miracle maker several times in the film. When Cabiria attends Catholic Mass with her friends, the priest says to the believers who have come to Mass, “Everyone has their own private pain, everyone has their own wishes waiting to be fulfilled by you [Madonna].” At this point, the camera pans to a still icon of Madonna and stays there for three seconds. [12] The figures under the icon that Fellini focuses on are a crippled man and his nephew who continually bow their heads to Madonna, devoutly praying that Madonna will restore him to a healthy condition. [13] Cabiria, influenced by the devotion of the people around her, has tears in her eyes and follows the crowd in praying for a better life. [14] Yet, in reality, the lives of those who place their trust in Madonna’s blessing are not made better by their devotional participation in the Mass. During a picnic with friends after the mass, Cabiria says, “None of our lives have changed, anyone, we’re still the same as we were before, and so are the cripples… Did Madonna have mercy on you?” [15] She started to question the effectiveness of being devout to Catholicism, because religion does not produce anything to help people gain a better life.
The ineffectiveness of the Italian religious system in Nights of Cabiria led to many criticisms after it was released. Bosley Crowther, a prominent New York Times film critic, in his review “Cabiria: Giulietta Masina Stars in Italian Import,” suggested that even though Fellini succeeded in portraying the inner struggles of characters like Cabiria, he exaggerated the bleakness of Italian society and judgingly dismissed the deep-rooted religious system. In the religious belief system, which has long been an essential part of Italian people’s lives, many Italians relied on their spiritual beliefs and devotion to God and Catholicism to draw motivation for life in times of abundance and suffering. Nevertheless, Fellini presents a religious system that is a complete failure but foolish and ineffective, that Bosley claims that it deviates from the true significance of the presence of religion in society and the authentic Italian social condition. [16]
However, it is a reasonable exaggeration, because instead of criticizing Catholicism, Fellini intentionally reveals the impact of changing societal and economic conditions on people through the lens of religion. In post-war Italy, economic development stimulated mass consumption, giving many ordinary people the opportunity to reach the wealth gap, but also creating the illusion that everyone could cross the class line and obtain a rich life. Nevertheless, in Nights of Cabiria, salvation for the underclass can be found not only through the power of God, but also through making themselves as God. People need to rely on luck, chance, and power of capitalism to bring themselves a better life, while many of the underclass have been taught only to pin their lives on religion. Ironically, in this film, religion does not produce anything. In this way, people who realize that their long-held beliefs are not going to make a difference, such as Cabiria, fall into existential crises with angst and nihility. Under such a social condition, people’s selves get lost in the existential nothingness, and thus they are unable to embrace a hardheaded life. Therefore, in essence, despite the historical accuracy critique, Fellini’s portrayal of Cabiria and the ecclesiastical system in post-war Italy is a remarkable emphasis on the detrimental effects of societal upheaval on people, and it has a dramatic impact.
It was not only mass consumption and material prosperity floated in the upper-class society that led to Italy’s post-war chaotic social conditions and Catholic banishment, but also the collapse of old moral values following the end of the Italian Fascist regime. During the Fascist era, the authoritarian ideology had a significant impact on the development of the moral value system in Italy. Through social propaganda and basic education policies, the fascist government propagated nationalist ideas and the notion that the “state above individual right” and promoted virtues like self-sacrifice, obedience, and discipline. [17] People were convinced that the rule of the fascist government could lead them to a better life, so that they eagerly kept sacrificing themselves for the operation of the regime.
However, in 1945, the central figure of the regime, Mussolini, was executed, and Fascist Italy came to an end. People who had been completely conformed to the fascist ideology immediately lost their political faith and were confused to realize that the promises made to them by Mussolini and the fascist regime were lies. The absence of political belief and the gradual disintegration of the religious belief, as reflected in Nights of Cabiria, all lead to people’s perplexity and existential crises, because the collapse of the object of faith and loyalty leaves people unable to recognize the meaning of their lives. However, the collapse of the fascist government and people’s loss of political belief brings the reevaluation of imposed moral values in society, and eventually led to moral corruption. The material prosperity brought by the post-war economic development in Italy stimulated people’s materialistic desires and centered their lives around consumption and money, but the disappearance of established moral values caused many people to resort to indecent behavior. Fellini criticizes this in the film, that among the three betrayals and abandonment suffered by Cabiria, two of them include robbery of money. At the beginning of the movie, while Cabiria is playing with her boyfriend Giorgio on the riverbank, he pushes her into the river and robs her of her bag and purse. It makes nearly drown, and she survives only after being rescued by villagers. [18] Furthermore, at the end of the film, Fellini echoes the beginning. Cabiria and her fiancé Oscar are playing and kissing in the mountains. While when they come to the edge of a cliff, Oscar reaves the money that Cabiria sold all her belongings for, and almost kills her by pushing her off the cliff. [19] These two criminal behaviors are inhumane, and Giorgio and Oscar bully the physically disadvantaged, reflecting the fact that even with material prosperity, people’s sense of morality and proper values have not progressed along with economic development.
In conclusion, through the portrayal of Cabiria, Fellini meticulously and realistically captures the issues of the sex industry and the exploitation of prostitutes in post-war Italy. However, he tells the story of Cabiria and expresses her mentality in an anti-realistic and irrational way that adapts to the modern relationship and life concept. Then, with the contrast between the hopeful Cabiria and the harsh reality of her life, Fellini expresses the impact of the social and economic changes on the lower classes of the post-war period in Italy. The ending scene with Cabiria looking into the camera with tears of joy breaks the film’s grammar and enables the moving emotion to rush towards the audience, making people empathize with Cabiria’s suffering and pain. All these make Nights of Cabiria an essential movie, reflecting the changing times and the lives of the underclass in post-war Italy.
Reference
[1] Ornati, “The Italian Economic Miracle and Organized Labor,” 521.
[2] Gundle, “Hollywood Glamour and Mass Consumption in Postwar Italy.”
[3] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 33:27-41:35.
[4] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 42: 02-47:01.
[5] Gibson, “Urban Prostitution in Italy, 1860-1915,” 117.
[6] Gibson, “Urban Prostitution in Italy, 1860-1915,” 118-121.
[7] Williams, “Prostitution,” 195.
[8] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 01:29:18 to 01:30:14.
[9] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 01:30:24 to 01:30:55.
[10] Azara, “Prostitution in Italy: the Merlin law and biological predetermination.”
[11] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 01:38:32-01:38:45.
[12] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 01:02:33 to 01:02:42.
[13] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 01:04:50.
[14] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 01:05:32 to 01:05:46.
[15] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 01:07:53 to 01:08:53.
[16] Crowther, “The Screen: Cabiria: Giulietta Masina Stars in Italian Import.”
[17] Duggan, Fascist Voices, 113-147.
[18] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 02:47-07:22.
[19] Fellini, Nights of Cabiria, 01:48:59-01:55:59.