Nights of Cabiria

Plot

Prostitute Cabiria and her lover Giorgio playfully chase each other through a field and up to the bank of a river. Oblivious to Giorgio's criminal intentions, Cabiria stands close to the edge of the water, before being pushed in to the river, and having her purse and money stolen. She is quickly saved by a group of onlooking bystanders who prevent her from drowning.

Cabiria returns to her small home, but Giorgio has disappeared. She is bitter, and when her best friend and neighbor, Wanda, tries to help her get over him, Cabiria shoos her away and remains disgruntled. One night, she is outside an upscale nightclub and witnesses a fight between famous movie star Alberto Lazzari and his girlfriend. The irritated Lazzari takes the starstruck Cabiria to another club where they dance the mambo, before returning to the movie star's house, where Cabiria is astounded by its opulence. The two share an intimate moment in Lazzari's bedroom, but are quickly interrupted by the intrusion of Lazzari's previous girlfriend. Cabiria is told to wait out the night in the bathroom, and ends up watching Lazzari and his girlfriend reconcile their relationship through the keyhole of the bathroom door.

The following day, a church procession passes by the street where Cabiria and her friends hang out. As her associates mock the Church, Cabiria is drawn to the procession. Just as she is about to join the procession, a man driving a truck pulls up and offers her a ride home. As she heads home later that night, she sees a man giving food to the poor people living in caves near her house. She has never seen this man before, but she is both impressed and confused by his charity toward others.

The following day, Cabiria and some of her friends attend a church mass, where she pleads the Virgin Mary for a better life. After the procession ends, Cabiria expresses sadness at the fact that her friends seemed to have not changed anything about their lives.

Cabiria goes to a magic show, and the magician drags her up on stage and hypnotizes her. As the audience laughs, she acts out her desires to be married and live a happy life. Furious at having been taken advantage of for the audience's amusement, she leaves in a huff. Outside the theatre, a man named Oscar is waiting to talk to her. He was in the audience, and he says he agrees with her that it was not right for everyone to laugh, but believes that fate has brought them together. They go for a drink, and at first she is cautious and suspicious, but after several meetings she falls passionately in love with him; they are to be married after only a few weeks. Cabiria is delighted and sells her home and takes out all her money from the bank. The sum of more than 700,000 lire in cash represents her dowry, and when she shows it to Oscar in a restaurant, he advises her to keep it in the purse. However, during a walk in a wooded area, on a cliff overlooking a lake,[a] Oscar becomes distant and starts acting nervous. Cabiria realizes that just like her earlier lover, Oscar intends to push her over the cliff and steal her money. She throws her purse at his feet, sobbing in convulsions on the ground and begging for him to kill her as he takes the money and abandons her.

She later picks herself up and stumbles out of the wood in tears. In the film's last sequence, Cabiria walks the long road back to town when she is met by a group of young people riding scooters, playing music, and dancing. They happily form an impromptu parade around her until she begins to smile, as a single black tear falls down her face.


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