Sixth session of the film programme Manoel de Oliveira Espectador, which explores Oliveira's experience as a filmgoer, revisiting films and filmmakers which were essential in his journey as a cinephile.

LE NOTTE DI CABIRIA | NIGHTS OF CABIRIA

Federico Fellini | ITA | 1957 | 118’

Nights of Cabiria is the last film Federico Fellini directed during the 50s, which sums up his narrative and dramatic proposals of his career until then, paving the way to his most famous stage, initiated with his following film La Dolce Vita (1960). The film's title refers to the main character Cabiria, a prostitute engulfed in the Roman criminal underworld. Always striving to find true love, Cabiria instead has to deal with a series of romantic failures. Played by Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife and a constant presence in his films of this decade, her powerhouse performance is, as Manoel de Oliveira wrote, "an unsurpassed expression of permanentely jailed human tenderness". Her positive energy contrasts with the hostile and sordid surroundings (Pier Paolo Pasolini was called up to contribute to the screenplay due to his familiarity with the Roman underworld), and this contrast allows Nights of Cabiria to present itself as a powerful exploration of the human condition. Having been particularly struck by Giulietta Masina, Manoel de Oliveira also praised the film as "perhaps Fellini's most beautiful film, whose dramatic path renders the tragic into a hymn to live" (Manoel de Oliveira, Ditos e Escritos, Fundação de Serralves, p. 256).