Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Nights of Cabiria

What is surreal about Fellini's plot in the Nights of Cabiria?

16 comments:

  1. Its about a prostitute. Im not sure how the lifestyle was for woman in Italy in those days but Maria's was pretty bad. She seemed too naive, here life was way too dramatic. Everything seemed to fall into place for here and situations would end up turning a 180 on here every time. Its as if every man would use and abuse here for what ever it was he wanted.

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  2. Although Nights of Cabiria is supposed to be a neo-realist story and film, Fellini's love for fantasy is still apparent. One example is how it seems every Italian man is evil in some way. There does not seem to be a good guy anywhere in the story until Oscar shows up. But that goes downhill fast. Another example is the scene where Cabiria and other minor characters are being hypnotized on stage and completely controlled. A surreal scene for a realist film. The story in general seems to be a little fantastic for a neo-realist film, but its background is still realistic in showing that separation of class and recovery even after a decade of the war being over.

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  3. The movie had a few qualities to it that made it seem risky back in those days. It portrayed Maria as being a bad lady along with the rest of her colleagues. However many people back then had to do what they needed to make a living to support themselves. Many elements to the movie actually probably happened to those people like when Maria was sent to hide in the bathroom so the famous actor’s girlfriend would not find out. However what made the movie surreal was every woman wants a man to take care of them but the actuality is that happy endings are, for the most part, to good to be true. Maria thought she was finally going to have changed her life but she ended up back working as a prostitute.

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  4. Fellini's plot seems most surreal in the sense of how much bad luck Maria encounters. She wants to believe that everything will work out and to find the good in people. However, that is never the case for her. She is rejected and treated badly. The men in the movie are all portrayed as mean and abusive. It is too broad and a bit surreal to portray ALL as bad. The scene where she meets a high profile man and comes to his room is quite surreal. Most "ordinary" people do not meet people like that, especially prostitutes. The scene where Maria is in the dream-like state also shows surreal elements in the film.

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  5. Fellini's plot is so surreal in same way as a lot of movies are that are about prostitutes. Maria grew up poor and became a prostitute at a young age. She also just happens to meet some of the riches men to go home with and when she finds one who wants to actually be with her or marry her, she falls for the hopes and dreams that man promises her. However, this is all very imaginary and a little too good to be true. "From rags to riches" is not usually something that can happen with a snap of the fingers. In all the movies about prostitutes that I have seen they all end up back on the streets where they started.

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  6. When I think of surrealism, i think of something too beautiful to be real. In Nights of Cambria, the surrealism lies in the unfortunate encounters that Maria comes across. What i loved about Fellini's movie is that it was very real. It starts with Maria in the field, possibly finding love, but then being pushed in the water only to find that the man wanted her money, not her. Then the movie ends in the same sort of scenario. In the end, she never finds love, only a teases, betrayal, and an unfulfilled dream. It's odd really. The plot of a prostitute trying to find love? She probably got into the wrong business.

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  7. Fellini's plot in Nights of Cambria was surreal in the sense that the woman who was the prostitute, was expecting to find a perfect, rich man who would come along and fall deeply in love with her. The woman was always dreaming of having money and being the prized posession of someone rich or famous. However, this idea of going from nothing (a poor, alone prostitute) to being a happy a rich wife is simply unrealistic. Over and over she obsessed and fell very quickly for the men who came onto her path because she assumed they would end up living happily ever after. This idea of everything ending like a fairy tale was surreal, and over and over again she was shown that these men were only trying to steal her money. No matter how many times it would happen she continued to believe that she could chase these rich men and end up being their princess.

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  8. In the Nights of Cabiria Maria portrayed herself to be a desperate prostitute that would fall for anything that came across her, she wanted to badly to believe she would one day live this perfect life being married to a rich and wealthy man. Time after time you can see it happening again and again. Maria being fooled and getting her money stolen. The most surreal piece of the movie i thought was towards the end she encounters a man who says everything she wants to hear telling her how beautiful she is and how he wants to marry her and move far away. She insists on telling him what she does for a living or about her past and how badly she was treated, and he doesn't seem to care. Maria lived in this fantasy world, its good to have hopes and dreams but Maria's seemed to be beyond reach coming from the lifestyle she had.

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  9. In the Nights of Cabiria, a prostitute is looking for the real thing when it comes to love. She continues to look for her fairy tale ending, at the end of the movie the audience believes she may have found the man that won't break her heart. In the end the relationship ends the same as the rest, she was being used for her money. The idea of portraying her as a prostitute goes along with the surreal idea that men have been using her all her life and now she finally believes she has found the one that will take her away from her lifestyle and provide and take care of her. The only thing she wanted is to love and be loved in return.

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  10. Fellini's plot in Nights of Cabiria is surreal in the way that all human beings have dreams that are just too much of a fantasy. we all try to search for a perfect ending in life and a perfect relationship and perfect job in this world, but it is definitely not always perfect in ones life.i think this is what Fellini portrayed through maria, the prostitute in this movie. her search for never ending love backfires when she thinks she found the perfect life with this man, but all he wanted from her was her money and so she was left alone on the streets as a prostitute once again.

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  11. What is surrealistic in the plot of NIghts of Cabriria is Maria's unrealistic way of viewing life. Although she lives poorly, and is seen wearing the same clothing throughout the film, she feels really good whenever she's around a wealthy man. Its as if she doesn't realize she's a prostitute with hardly any money. She doesn't want to accept that she lives that lifestyle and gets excited and hopeful every time. Her whole life seems to be dreamlike and surrealistic.

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  12. Fellini's plot is surreal to me because this movie is about a prostitute who in the begining of the movie gets betrayed and robbed by her boyfriend. Then she ends up meeting a really rich man and going home with him. She is so hopeful of finding a man who will love her and marry her. She ends up finding him and falls quickly in love with him. He asks her to marry him and he also scams her out of her money. Fellini made the plot so predictable for the viewer that is one of the reasons why it seemed so surreal to me. Another reason becasue no man in their right mind will fall in love with a prostitute in such a short amount of time. Nights of Cabriria was a very enjoyable film but at the same time very surreal.
    -April Fernandez

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  13. What i found surreal about the plot of Nights of Cabiria was that a prostitute would be so cheerful and full of dreams. I would think that prostitutes would be portrayed as women who are disillusioned and have had a rough life that has led them to sell their body. And in this movie despite being a prostitute she still has hope of finding the man of her dreams and falling in love. Another thing that i found very surreal was that a prostitute wouldn't notice when a man is trying to take advantage of her and steal her money or harm her. I would think that when a woman is out on her own she would become street smart, and tough to be able to take care of herself to survive. However, in Nights of Cabiria she appears to be very naive and gullible which i don't think is a good trait for a prostitute. She get robbed twice in the movie, and in one of the times she almost drowned because she was pushed into a river. I think that a real life prostitute would be more cautious of where she goes with men, and also maybe doesn't believe everything they tell her.

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  14. All of it is rather surreal. I mean, this prostitute goes around falling in love. Not that I know a lot of prostitutes, but I would assume they aren't exactly all about the love right? That might sound kind of harsh, of course they have a heart and soul, but really this girl is a bit ridiculous. If I can create the best parallel I would compare this to "Pretty Woman". Lets have a look at Julia Roberts. She was tough and even though Richard Gere (as strapping as he is) was really nice to her and treated her well, she made it strictly business. That was at least until she fell for him, but she took her time to figure him out. This girl in Nights of Cabiria wanted to marry the last guy after a few days thinking she knew him. I don't know I just feel like a girl in that line of work would have her wits about her but the main character here lost hers.

    - Jaclyn

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  15. Fellini's plot in Nights in Cambiria is a surreal one. It seems that Maria's view in life is too positive, even after she had been deceived by men. She has a fairy tale view of life, when in reality, she should be weary of people. That's not to say she should never trust anyone, but maybe just not trust people as easily. The sad part is when she realizes how wrong about life she had been, but it was too late. Her view on life is what brought an end to it.
    -Beatriz

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  16. I believe that Maria in Nights in Cambiria herself is so surreal. She doesnt realize how harsh and cruel the world is. She finally comes to the realization at the end of the film. All she wants in life is a man to just treat her right, but she never gets that. It is so sad to see her try to change her life around and stop being a prostitute for what she thinks is this perfect man but he ends up hurting her in the end. she thus turns back to prostitution never getting what she wants. This surreal approach creates that perfect fairy tale of what she wants in a man but what she needed was a reality check in her life. So sad but she ended up alone never realizing it.

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