81 reviews
Sales Rank: 15303

Format: Black & White, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: Italian (Original Language), English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed)
Rating: Unrated
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 118
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.7 x 0.7

MPN: DNIG040D
ISBN: 078002222X
UPC: 037429138427
EAN: 9780780022225
ASIN: B00000IOKV

Theatrical Release Date: 1957
Release Date: September 7, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New, Factory Sealed Criterion Collection DVD. Immediate shipping. More DVDs and VHS with great films.

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•	Juliet Of The Spirits - Criterion Collection

Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com essential video
A year after his international breakthrough film La Strada, Federico Fellini and his leading lady/wife Giulietta Masina collaborated on another masterpiece, a magical mix of neorealism and romantic optimism set on the streets of Rome. Masina's moon-faced and bright-eyed Cabiria is a passionate streetwalker with a heart as big as Italy and the emotional spontaneity of a child, a woman with a hearty passion for life whose constant weakness is falling in love with mercenary creeps. For a couple of hours we share the dreams and disillusionments of Cabiria as she rattles around Rome before once again losing her heart. The bittersweet heartbreak is tempered with a soaring celebration of the human spirit: no other Fellini film offers such honest hope in the face of such bitter devastation. Fellini left the poor and the working class to revel in the decadence of Rome's high society for his next film, La Dolce Vita, a film that could have sprung from Cabiria's hilarious chance interlude with a matinee idol (played by Amedeo Nazzari). Rambling and leisurely paced, Nights of Cabiria is a sweet film of warmth and simple grace. It became the basis of Neil Simon's American musical Sweet Charity, with Shirley Maclaine taking Masina's role in Bob Fosse's film version. --Sean Axmaker

Description
Giulietta Masina won Best Actress at Cannes as the title character of one of Fellini's most haunting films. Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria) is the tragic story of a naive prostitute searching for true love in the seediest sections of Rome. Criterion proudly presents the restored director's cut in a breathtaking new transfer.

Customer Reviews: Read 76 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

What Pretty Woman Should Have Been July 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I hated Pretty Woman (15th Anniversary Special Edition)-a whore on Hollywood Boulevard meets Prince Charming! Ughh. So when I read the description of Nights of Cabiria, I wasn't keen. But I like Fellini, so decided to give Nights of Cabiria a chance.

This is a wonderful film. Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina stars as Cabiria, an older woman who "lives the life" in Rome. She lives in Rome's poorest neighborhood, Ostia, but is fiercely proud of being very close to paying off her mortgage. One day she goes with friends to make a pilgrimage to the Virgin Mary and asks for her life to change. Shortly thereafter she meets Oscar and believes the Virgin has blessed her with true love. Like Richard Gere in Pretty Woman, Oscar has his own ideas about how to set Cabiria up for life!

Giulietta Masina is remarkable in this film. She delivers one of the best female performances I've seen in my life. This script is excellent. And Fellini's direction brilliant.

The Criterion restoration of this film is very good-among the best I've seen Criterion produce. The extras, including original previews and shorts from another film with Giulietta playing a much younger prostitute are excellent. Puts "modern classics" like Pretty Woman to shame.

See also Criterions release of other Fellini classics like 8 1/2 - Criterion Collection, La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition), and other lesser known Fellini films like Il Bidone and La Strada - Criterion Collection.

5 out of 5 stars

My most favorite movie in 45 years of watching films May 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I first saw this film many years ago, but the funny thing is that I love it only more as the decades go by.

This is especially a good film for people to watch who have a lot of pain in their lives, because Cabiria shows us how she got that too, and how she always gets up, dusts herself off and gets back in the game -- nay, joins the parade.

There are many things I love about this film. It tells us so much of the world and Cabiria shows us a glimpse of the Divine coming through the personae. (How fitting that even her name, Cabiria, is a form of a word representing ancient divine deities.)

Falling in love with Cabiria helped me also to fall in love with me.

I would also like to mention how grateful I am that this film is still in black and white. It is true art.

I have called other films my favorite, but in the end -- as of 2008 -- this is THE favorite. (Other contenders are very different though very good, such as TRUE ROMANCE which was written but not directed by Quentin Tarantino.)

5 out of 5 stars

lovely and disturbing April 6, 2008
One of my fave movies of all time. Enough said. Original in plot, characters, and conflict. Watch it, and then be prepared to own it and love it.

5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly, a powerful emotional experience... March 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Fellini's most powerful films actually PRECEDE the (in my opinion) over-praised '8 1/2' for the simple reason that the heart is more powerful than the head (for me at least). There are few movies with this kind of enduring emotional appeal - and I must stress this is not cheap, sentimental emotion. Movies are products of their time and often age quickly; 'Cabiria' is an extraordinary film experience, but perhaps one must see it twice to fully enter a world created by Fellini a half-century ago. In any event, most people who enjoy movies are unfamiliar with 'Cabiria', which is stunning to realize after fully experiencing it.

I am almost ashamed to admit that I did not appreciate this movie the first time I saw it (only the second time, and then even more the third time, the fourth, etc....)

Fellini in the 1950's with 'La Strada' and 'Cabiria' created at least two films that will always affect viewers emotionally for one simple reason: Fellini's ability to explore and ultimately celebrate our humanity within the hell life can often be for many of us. The power of 'La Strada' is the complex humanity of the two main characters (though Quinn's character only understands how horrible it is emotionally to be fully human in the final minute of the movie; Giulietta Masini's character denies none of her humanity at any point in 'La Strada' and is brutally punished for her inability to edit-out life horrors).

Because 'Cabiria' is now 50 years old it is best watched twice (minimum!) Only then can one overcome any resistance to how different it is from movies made today. Only then can one fully appreciate how perfectly melancholy, yearning and integrated the music is by Nino Rota. More important, what at first may appear to some viewers as mugging and overacting by Masini is revealed as a fully-realized character: the inimitable Cabiria.

No movie in my experience has a more powerful, hopeful, bittersweet ending than 'Cabiria'; few equal it...

With all great cinematic or theatrical experiences there is always the mystery of how such emotional power is achieved. Fellini crafted the movie with a talented team of actors and technicians so there should be no mystery. But the experience of this movie is so powerful that it cannot be put into words.

'8 1/2' is a bon-bon for the intellect. 'Cabiria' is an emotional experience on the highest level. I know of few movies that equal 'Cabiria' other than 'La Strada'. These are the best of Fellini's movies, along with the transitional film 'La Dolce Vita'.

So, watch this one (perhaps twice!) and enjoy one of THE great movies...

5 out of 5 stars

Unforgettable and beautiful! January 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is my favorite movie by Federico Fellini---my favorite movie ever!
You must see it! You will fall in love with Cabiria, Fellini, Giulietta Masina, Italy, and your own fragile, beautiful , self---and strength of
spirit. This is what art can do!