Cabiria 2

A shot from Cabiria's point of view, as she looks out the bathroom window, exposes the grand pool and beautiful patio behind Alberto's mansion. This shot reminds Cabiria of her loss as a potentially successful person and also with any prospects with Alberto. She knows she will not have the chance to enjoy any of this. The denotative chime of nearby church bells echoes through Alberto's mansion. This may be a foreshadowing of the next reduction Cabiria faces. Fellini shadows the bedroom of Alberto Lazarri with low-key lighting. As the bright lights of last night paralleled Cabiria's delight, so do the shadowed light of the morning parallel her feeling of loss. A cut to the bed reveals Jessica asleep and in an unflattering position with her face skewed from pressing face down on the mattress. Yet, the curved lines of Jessica body under the sheets show the audience Jessica's physical superiority over Cabiria. At this point, the building of Cabiria's leitmotif reinforces her reduction and takes us into the last shot between Alberto and Cabiria. Both behind the glass door of Alberto's room, a hairlight casts their silhouettes on to the glass. We see Alberto try to pay Cabiria, but she refuses believing that if she refuses the money she can hold on to her last shred of dignity. Finally she accepts the money because this is her job and how she earns her money to live. Cabiria hangs her head down in regret. This night turned out like any other. Cabiria did not gain the adoration of a movie star. Rather, she earned some money and ended the night just like any other. Every night Cabiria works as a prostitute, she reduces herself. Yet, each day she rises and puts on a proud face. As she walks downstairs, hitting the thick glass door with her forehead reemphasizes the fact that Cabiria does not belong here in the mansion. In the sequence of shots showing Cabiria leave the mansion; Fellini makes sure we know Cabiria still has pride. We see her putting on some form of a belt, pulling up her socks and grabbing her umbrella. Even though Cabiria is reduced she still respects herself. A long shot shows her walking away from the mansion, a solitary figure, much like at the end of her first reduction. Cabiria meets with reduction for a third time after her visit to the Madonna. Fellini sets up this scene with a master shot, using the camera to pan across a grass meadow outside the church. From this shot the field looks to us like it's been through a carnival with trash everywhere and people running around, instead of a religious ceremony. The denotative (diegetic) sound sets the setting with an upbeat carnival sound. Both what we see and hear in this shot contrasts what we would expect to see following the ceremony. We see Cabiria by herself with her white back turned toward the Camera. Next, a medium shot of the group of Amleto, his uncle and the prostitutes eating and drinking in the middle ground. They are all facing the camera at one angle or another. The subject of the shot, Cabiria, can be seen sitting in the background through a space between the prostitutes on the left. Cabiria sits in solitude, the only one with her back still turned. Cabiria never seems to belong anywhere. She constantly searches for her place, but nothing suits her. We witness Cabiria drain a glass of alcohol in anger. This contrasts the prostitutes and the others who seem to be drinking joyously. "Why should we want to think?!" This sarcastic exclamation from Cabiria with arms flailing about clearly shows us the root of her frustration. No one else seems to be trying to learn from the visit to the Madonna. The others were so into the experience with the singing, the crying and the hysteria just minutes before. Yet now, the others are dancing, drinking and falling into old habits. They remain completely unchanged by the experience. Cabiria bursts with her disappointment in faith. A series of crosscuts between Cabiria standing up and her prostitute friends sitting on the picnic blanket reinforced their separation in feelings. Cabiria's bottom lip is drawn down baring her teeth as she raves in anger that "Nobody's changed." We see her letting out her pent up madness that stems from her continual failures. Her disappointment in faith comes from the fact that faith seems not to have changed anyone. This is her reduction. Cabiria decides if the Madonna will not change her, she will change her self. Fellini captures Cabiria in the foreground of a shot with a procession of nuns clad in white walking in the background. Cabiria, yelling at the nuns who represent faith, reiterates her disappointment. When Cabiria walks away from the other prostitutes we are reminded of her previous two reductions involving Giorgio and Alberto. By walking away alone after each reduction, we know Cabiria never comes to realignment. The final reduction for Cabiria comes during her trip to the cliff to watch the sunset with Oscar. The editor telescopes the time the walk takes. The walk is shrunk down to a couple minutes of rhythm shots that focus on Cabiria, then Oscar then them together. Fellini portrays Cabiria as Little Red Riding Hood. Her singing fills our ears. We see her picking flowers and swinging between the trees. The shots cutting to Oscar portray him as weird and nervous. He walks stiffly and constantly looks around the forest. The shots with Oscar and Cabiria together are awkward for us. We feel his inhibition. One shot shows Cabiria placing her expensive feminine hat on Oscar's head and his fake smile. Oscar's odd behavior combined with the darkening of the forest foreshadows a disaster. A silhouette of Oscar in the middle ground with the sunset, lake and mountains behind him give us one last glimpse of what Cabiria's perfect love could have been like. Fellini uses a series of cuts for dramatic impact here at the climax of his movie. He uses shots of him, shots of her, shots together. The sweat on his face and his trembling movements combined with her ignorant ramblings of love make builds up the tension. As she stands near the edge of the cliff, we want to reach out to her. An extreme close up of his eyes tells the whole story to her and us. Oscar's planned on killing Cabiria, but he is too much of a coward. Her final reduction occurs and she becomes more than just disappointed in love, she feels betrayed by it. Cabiria gave her entire life for the illusion of love. She sold almost everything she owned and left behind her life as prostitute. Cabiria's absolute anguish is revealed to us at the time when she begs Oscar to kill her. She wants her misery ended. Cabiria would rather die than deal with her reduction. The intense despair falls upon Cabiria too fast for her to just walk away. The pain takes control of her entire body as she writhes on the ground. Earlier in the film, we see Cabiria always trying to keep up appearances. Rubbing her self in the dirt and leaves tells us that all ability to think has left her body. Love has given up on her and she would rather die than deal with the pain. A silhouette of Oscar's feet as they run away establishes that this reduction is different. This time Cabiria does not run away. Fellini even shows her picking up the flowers again when she wakes up later that night and leaves the hat. The flowers are part of her optimism and hat represents her past. These events give us a little hope that Cabiria will realign. The denotative sound of the teenagers singing and playing their instruments moves time along in the movie. Fellini follows Cabiria on the road with her in the middle ground and the teenagers running back and forth between the foreground and background. This shot shows that one can not escape life. It's all around us and will sweep us up at our lowest points, when we have been reduced again and again and have lost hope. We pick ourselves up and we realign. The shot from Cabiria's point of view of a young beautiful girl with long dark hair alludes to Cabiria's description of herself at that age. It signals to us that Cabiria can start over and realign. Lastly, an artistic close up of Cabiria with one mascara tear follows her looking around at the teenagers. She cracks a smile and takes a quick look at us, the viewers, that tells us in the shroud of disappointment, we can always find hope. Cabiria's realignment finally occurs at this point. Cabiria faces reduction four times in the film. The reductions bring about disappointment in herself, a loss of opportunity, faith and love. For the first three disappointments, Cabiria walks away and accepts reduction. After her painful disappointment is love, Cabiria finally realigns and finds happiness in herself.