Cabiria

Rick Politician November 5, 2001 Comp Lit 270-B Reduction and Realignment Federico Fellini faced little disappointment in his career as a film director and writer. His third movie, Two Vitelloni, earned him heaps of money and fame when it opened in theaters in 1953. From then on, Federico Fellini continued to produce one successful film after another. One of his better films, Nights of Cabiria, which came out in 1957 and stars his wife Giuletta Masina, won him an Oscar. This film revolves around the heroine of the film, Cabiria (played by Giuletta), and takes us (the audience) through four points of reduction and finally realignment at the end of the film. In the first point of reduction we see Cabiria face up to the truth that Giorgio meant to kill her for the 40,000 lire she carried in her purse. By this time her anger at Giorgio has subsided, and her real disappointment, in herself, erupts into a frenzied anger. This sequence begins with Cabiria pictured in a medium shot. We can her eyes shoot from side to side like a scared girl who feels alone. Also, she runs her hand along the side of her face and through her hair showing us her extreme anxiety. The normal camera angle puts us right there at eye level with her as her thoughts develop. She seems to think back on Wanda's answer to Cabiria's question regarding who would murder someone for 40,000 lire. Wanda answer stated that 5,000 lire would suffice. This illustrates to us that Cabiria thinks much higher of mankind than other people do. An interesting device used by Fellini in this shot is the low-key lighting. The shadow surrounds Cabiria, yet a light shines upon her, a device often used to show an upcoming revelation or epiphany. All of this builds up to the reduction as she realizes that Giorgio fooled her and how disappointed she is in herself. Fellini incorporates a strong sense of irony in this first shot through the underscore of music. Although this develops into a very dramatic and consuming moment for Cabiria, for the audience we see this as almost humorous since we already know Giorgio is a bad guy and that Cabiria has been fooled from when we saw him push Cabiria in the tree and steal her purse. It's humorous that she cannot admit that Giorgio fooled her and accept the reduction. The music playing during this shot goes even further and makes fun of Cabiria. We hear music with a soft timbre, a high pitch that adds an amusing ambience and a complicated rhythm that mocks Cabiria's anxiety and creates dissonance with the scene. The music sets a mood similar to a lazy, comical Sunday afternoon where everyone is lying around a blue pond having fun. It's like the music is saying 'big deal Cabiria, we've all known you are an ignorant fool for a while." In the next shot, we hear the sound change as the music is overpowered by Cabiria's words of anger; they are loud, fast spoken and have a harsh tone. The exclamations "Find another jerk like me!" and "Look what I bought him! A checked suit! A camel-hair coat! Never again! Never!" emphasize her disappointment in herself. When Cabiria runs outside to burn Giorgio's belongings, her ravings are contrasted by the playful sounds of the kids having fun on the street. Cabiria reveals to us how much more dramatic she is compared with the rest of mankind, represented in her by the street kids. Because of her dramatic nature, she will not take reduction lightly. A long shot shows Cabiria's relation to her environment. A fire burns within the right third of the screen and is the unmoving direct object in the shot. Cabiria enters on the left third as the subject. As she flings Giorgio's possessions into the fire, we see the negative space between her and the burning possessions. She acknowledges the space between her and Giorgio will never be reclaimed, showing she accepts the reduction. A quick cut to a medium shot of Cabiria centered in the frame, reveals a face full of anger. The light from the fire causes shadows to dance across her face. Another, quick cut displays a close-up of the burning fire and provides the denotative sound of the blaze. Both of these shots give us the impression that Cabiria's anger with herself has developed in to a fired frenzy. This is what reduction has created in her. Another medium shot of Cabiria catches her crying. As she walks off down the road the darkness surrounds the solitary Cabiria and we get the feeling that she feels ashamed over how stupid she has been in trusting Giorgio. Cabiria always takes care of herself. She has her own income and home, but she is reduced to admitting to herself she still needs companionship and love and can never be truly independent. Her need for companionship is an important theme that runs through out the film becomes a driving force for three of her four reductions. The off-screen denotative sound of a train running over tracks dramatizes her loneliness as she softly fades away into the night as Fellini fades out the scene. In this sequence of scenes we see Cabiria come to the realization that Giorgio tried to kill her. The reduction occurs as she feels an excruciating disappointment in herself. Cabiria let this man, Giorgio, into her life. She took care of him and trusted him and during this time she did not see the true character of Giorgio as a thief and willing murderer. Cabiria next experiences reduction during her episode with the actor Alberto Lazarri. Cabiria dreams and fantasizes of a grand opportunity for herself with Alberto as he grows fond of her, but her dreams are crushed and reduction occurs in the form of regret and lost opportunity when Alberto's girlfriend, Jessica, shows up. Fellini sets up this sequence by having Cabiria framed in a medium shot with high-key lighting. The effect as she plays with the silver dishes and the food gives us the impression of her pure delight and innocence. The use of the same background music (underscore) from the previous sequence, gives us a contrasting impression. The underscore builds a leitmotif. We connect the music with Cabiria's previous reduction and, thus, Fellini successfully foreshadows Cabiria's second reduction. A medium shot focuses in on Alberto and we see an annoyed face. This, coupled with the decay of the background music imparts the beginning of Cabiria's second reduction. A couple medium shots of Cabiria, with a worried look, on the left third of the screen instead of the middle as earlier in the sequence, tells us that Cabiria is on the move. The opportunity may still be there, but it seems less and less likely. The hairlight shot of Cabiria and Alberto that darkens their faces as they enter the bathroom emphasizes to us that she now moves from the light of the room into the darkness of the bathroom. The bathroom becomes even more terrifying due to the fact that it's a diegetic space in this shot. Fellini allows us to imagine how horrible a place the bathroom may be and the reduction that Cabiria must face. A series of crosscutting shots increases the tension, pulling us back and forth between Jessica and Alberto's reconcile and Cabiria's spying through the keyhole. We see Jessica and her beautiful mink coat that falls from her neck to her ankles and immediately contrast her to Cabiria's own ugly, brown fur coat that only covers her shoulders. Finally, the shot from Cabiria' point of view through the circle keyhole tells both her and us that she has lost her chance. She transcends from anger at herself for not taking wooing Alberto well enough to sadness because she knows she is reduced again. Instead of sleeping with Alberto Lazzari by her side in his large warm bed, Cabiria is reduced to sleeping in Alberto Lazzari's cold bathroom with a puppy in her arms. A long shot reveals Cabiria waking up in an unflattering position sitting on the ground with her legs spread. What wakes her is not the kisses of Alberto on her cheek, but the licks from the puppy on her leg. Fellini shows us that the fairy tale of last night is just a fairy tale and he reduces Cabiria to a dreary prostitute once again. This shot furthers Cabiria's reduction. The night before, Cabiria claimed publicly to have only slept under an arch a couple times. The way she says this gives us the impression that sleeping under an arch is a shameful thing because that is where a prostitute sleeps when she has no bed of her own or her own bed is far away and she has not found a man for the night. The bathroom is much like an arch. It is cold, hard and where she ended up sleeping because Alberto chose to sleep with Jessica.