OPENING
Maria "Cabiria" makes her way to the water with a man named Giorgio. She’s playful as she stands near the water’s edge and it appears that these two know each other. Suddenly Giorgio takes her bag and pushes her in the water, sprinting off and leaving her to drown. A group of kids pull her out of the water that she is drowning in and local men resuscitate her. When she comes back to life she screams for Giorgio and won’t let the people help her any longer. She wants to go home. We can see Fellini showing us that her life has been turned upside down as the men literally turn her upside down to get water out of her. She leaves in a hurry and tells everyone she wants to go home. We see that at home she expects Giorgio to be there, but he isn’t and she doesn’t even have the keys to her own place. He does; she’s locked out of her own home because she’s given the keys to a man she’s known for only one month. She has given the keys to her heart to a man she barely knows. We gauge that Fellini is blatantly telling us this is dangerous. A nosy neighbor tries to find out what’s happening, but Maria won’t let her in. It’s fitting that Maria lives in a cement block home as it is a representation of how she won’t let anyone near her, and by placing rows of sea shells strung up in front of the door it’s a symbol for dreams. That for Maria, home is a place she wants to be magical. And it isn’t.
The woman makes her way into Maria’s home and is trying to be supportive to, but Maria won’t have it and makes her leave, taunting her as she does. The woman finally tells Maria that she’s in love with a man she barely knows and should tell the cops. To which Maria replies she is no stool pigeon. Maria is proud of this and we see it in the way she says it. But, we see she is a fool and when she walks into her place and see photos of Giorgio set up like a shrine she admits it to herself, takes all of his belongs and burns them in the fire. Fellini then shoots her walking off in down the road which is completely dark. The image shows us how the character is feeling. Maria joins a group of prostitutes that are hanging around with their pimps, and when one of them yells about Giorgio Maria gets into a fight with her. She leaves with one of her friends, a pimp and a bloody nose. After the pimp tries to get Maria to work for him she demands that she be let out. Maria soon hears music coming from a club as she walks the street and is drawn to it. Fellini shoots her being able to look in through a window, but it is covered with bars and wire showing us that she is shut out from a higher class life, and the point is further driven home when the doorman to the club asks Maria to move on.
HIGHER CLASS
Maria sees a woman come out of the club and a man come after her. The man is a famous actor, Alberto Lazzari. He wears a white jacket and his car is white as well. He and the woman get into an argument that turns into them slapping each other. When the woman walks off he hails for Maria to get in his car. We can see the surface representation of a white knight depicted here as Maria sees his fame and translates that to class. Alberto takes her to a nightclub only speaking to her in orders. Get out, come in, speak here. The pair dance and when Maria tells him he can be with his friends instead of dance with her he tells her they’re leaving. They go back to his home to have supper. He doesn’t even know her name when he tells her to come upstairs. Fellini shoot Maria walking up the stairs in such a way that makes your stomach turn. It’s frightening and makes us feel like what’s about to happen isn’t good. Maria and Alberto begin to drink champagne and the mood starts to change. Maria opens up a bit and tells him she knows who he is. She cries because no one will believe that she was here at his house so, he autographs a picture for her saying that she was in his home. Just as they are seeming to get into a better time the woman, Jessie, from the club that Alberto had a fight with shows up. He locks Maria in the bathroom so that he and Jessie can talk. He tells her that he is going to get rid of her, but ends up making love to her and leaving Maria in the bathroom all night. In the morning, he sneaks Maria out and gives her money, never apologizing. Fellini shoots her shadow standing outside his bedroom door. It’s showing us that again she has been shut out of the life that she dreams of.
THE STREET AND THE MADONNA
Maria joins the other prostitutes after her night with Lazzari, and they all talk of going to see the Madonna, to ask for a miracle. We see a procession of people walking barefoot by them with the cross of Jesus. Maria is drawn towards this, and she walks out into the street to watch them. Fellini shoots her in a strip of light that illuminates her, while the other women stay in the shadows. His composition shows us that she desires a better life, and more than that she knows it is available to her. As she seems ready to join the group a man pulls up and offers her a ride. She is between salvation and her old life. And she chooses to get into the car with the man. We find her later, walking alone in the dark in a place she doesn’t. She says she’s been walking for an hour. Then a man pulls up in a car and she hides as he pulls a bag from the passenger seat. The man asks Maria if she lives in the caves before he gives blankets and food to the people who are homeless living there. The man gives Maria a ride to the tram. It’s the first time that we hear Maria tell anyone her real name as the whole time she has been calling herself Cabiria. This happens just before Maria walks to the Madonna with the other prostitutes in order to ask for mercy from the Madonna. We see Maria is overwhelmed by a feeling in her heart that is unfamiliar to her, and tears come to her eyes as we see she desires to lead a new life, clean of her past. Fellini reveals character to us through this scene by showing Maria’s sincerity is at the forefront of her plea, while fear cripples others belief and doesn’t allow them to receive the grace they seek. After they make their pleas Fellini shows the group drinking and eating and carrying on as if they hadn’t just confessed their sins. Maria is in deep thought about this and explodes because she knows that her life has to change, but it will only stay the same if she allows it to. We see that Maria has had too much to drink and she wants to sell her home and leave the life of prostitution forever. When Wanda asks the pimp to help her he doesn’t want to be bothered. He’s too concerned with listening to music. We see that the people who say they want to protect her really don’t care.
Maria then goes to a magic show by herself and is picked to come up from the audience to be a part of the show. The magician hypnotizes her to fall in love with a man named Oscar. He has to stop the show when he sees that she truly desires this, asking the fictional man if it is true, that he will never leave her. The magician wakes her up and the audience applauds to her horror as she doesn’t know what she has just done. After the show Maria waits inside the theatre entrance because men from the audience have been waiting and heckling her outside. She finally leaves and meets a man who was at the show. He buys her a Fernet and tells her he was deeply moved by what he saw, and heartsick by how the charlatan could allow her purity to be betrayed by his tricks. We find out that the man’s name is Oscar, and he believes it is fate that brought them together as he doesn’t live in this town, but wandered into the theatre simply following his instinct. Fellini shows us that Maria could be staring at the new life she prayed for in Oscar. We see her skepticism and fears all come to the surface, and this is beautiful to watch because it is so truthful to life. When one is face to face with the potential of a better life many times they doubt it instead of accepting it. They decide to meet in the coming Sunday at the Stazione Terminal at 7.
STAZIONE TERMINAL
Maria shows up to meet Oscar, but tries to sneak away. After their date she is back on the street with her prostitute friends telling them all about him, but she along with them are skeptical. They don’t understand what he wants from her. She doesn’t care as long as he keeps paying. Fellini shows us what is truly sad about the life these women are leading in that they are so beaten down by how men have treated them, using them as objects, that they can’t recognize gentleness and kindness, nor the beginnings of a fruitful relationship whose end is simply love. The women soon scatter when the police raid their street and they all scatter like rats, and hide. We next see Oscar meeting Maria for another date. They walk together and he shares all about his life with her, and we see that he is giving her all of himself. Maria is then seen at her home lying in bed bull of joy. There is a caged bird in her home and we can see that she is that bird. Caged by the life that she’s been living, but she plays with the bird momentarily and we see that the bird desires to be free just like her. She leaves the cage of her home and on the road she meets a man of the church who asks her if she has God’s grace. She says she doesn’t, and he tells her she should be married, to come to the church and find him if she needs anything from him. Maria then is standing back on the street in the rain. She’s covered by her umbrella. She’s looks happy and beautiful, but her look turns quickly. A man pulls up and asks for her to get in with him, but she doesn’t. The next day with Oscar she tells him she can’t be with him. He tells her he will marry her. She thinks he’s crazy, but says yes. He has arranged for them to have a store and a house for their new life together, and she tells Wanda that she told him everything about her life and that he doesn’t care. Fellini shoots Maria saying all of this to Wanda outside of Wanda’s fence. It shows that they are now separated. Their lives are much different and there is a barrier between them.
CONFESSION
Maria goes to see Father Giovanni, the man from the road she met in order to confess her sins. She and Wanda then pack the rest of her things from her home to prepare for her leaving. Wanda cries when her friend leaves on the bus to her new home and her new life. Oscar and Maria finish their meal in their new town and Maria pulls out her money to pay. It’s 400,000 lira. She tells him that he has no idea what she’s had to go through in order to get this money. He asks her to put it away and we see that for the first time he changes. He becomes more distant in a subtle way, and asks that they take a stroll with no destination in particular to reach. He tells her to leave her luggage and they will get it later. We find the couple in the woods a seemingly strange place to be when juxtaposed to the cliffside ocean views of the restaurant they were just at. And, they just keep walking until Oscar says they should go watch the sunset. And they do so near a high cliff near the water. Oscar has brought her here to kill her and take her money and she figures it out. She gives him the money and begs him to kill her. He can’t do it, but he takes her money and leaves her. She wakes up hours later and begins to walk on the road, and when she does a group of people playing music come alongside her. As tears stream from her eyes we are able to see that she is determined to be okay. Fellini then has Maria break the fourth wall and look directly into the camera. To tell us, the audience that this will not defeat her. She has found mercy and the grace of God in her confession and even through this adversity she will endure.
