Nights of Cabiria

Nights of Cabiria is a film not so much concerned with the plot, and the series of events that happen to the main character, Cabiria, but rather focuses on what impact these events have had on her as a person.  This film does not try to hide what Cabiria is.  She IS a prostitute. However, she is not the clichéd “prostitute with a heart of gold."  But she is a prostitute with a heart, and unfortunately, it is often breaking, despite her outward efforts to try and mask it. 

You cannot talk about Nights of Cabiria without mentioning post-war Rome, which in and of itself is a character as well. One scene in the film depicts a Good Samaritan bringing food, clothes and supplies to many citizens left homeless from the ravages of war; all the while Cabiria tries to seduce the clearly un-interested man in a "date."  While one man tries to help others, Cabiria is doing all she can to make her own way in this world.

Cabiria is not without a sense of shame or pity however.  This is evident in one of the final scenes when she sells her humble little house to a needy family in one of the more touching scenes in the film.  And that is the point.  Cabiria, despite her profession, is still a woman of high moral character.  Disappointment after disappointment continues to rain down on her and yet she refuses to give up.  She refuses to feel sorry for herself despite all that has happened.  At the end of the film, after a completely heartbreaking episode, she keeps her head held high and marches forward in a beautifully shot final scene.

We first see Cabiria walking by the lake with a lover, Giorgio, who steals her purse, then throws her into the water.  It is a familiar pattern with Cabiria: men, who exploit her, then abandon her.  She is not morally bankrupt, but deeply spiritual, extremely optimistic given her circumstances, and trusting.  She attempts to project an image that she is confidently in control.  Yet, we see that she is a victim of circumstance.  She resorts to prostitution as a means of income in an economically depressed city.  She is duped by pilgrims professing to witness a miracle.  She is denied an evening with a celebrity when his girlfriend unexpectedly returns to reconcile. 

The imagery of water is a prevalent theme in Nights of Cabiria.  It is the symbol of eternity.  In Nights of Cabiria, the film begins and ends with water.  It is an image that illustrates that life, itself, is as eternal as the human condition.  Water is also a symbol of purification.  Cabiria's soul remains untainted, despite her profession.  It is a humanist idea that people are innately good, but forced by their circumstances into acts of desperation.  The result is a powerful metaphor: a fusion of hope and misery, perseverance and suffering.

--Rachel K.

Women in “The Searchers”

In westerns, the main protagonist is generally an older male.  In fact, in many instances, westerns seem to cater to men (specifically American men).  This main character happens to embody the “true American spirit” and is often rough and unrefined.  He has a take-charge approach to difficult situations.  He is willing to stand up for what he believes and defend his country.  Contrast this characterization with the female actresses in westerns.  They are often the ones that need to be saved.  They are taken advantage of and very rarely do they even play a large role in the actual film.  Women in westerns (and especially in “The Searchers”) are often depicted as weak and/or incapable of handling extreme pressure. 

The first female character in “The Searchers” to truly demonstrate these unfortunate characteristics is Debbie.  Debbie ends up being captured by Scar and forced to be one of his wives.  This is the first example of her being weak.  Instead of fighting off the Comanches like the men in the film do, she allows herself to be captured.  Once she is captured, she is essentially “brainwashed”.  No male character is ever captured and then psychologically (and possibly physically) manipulated to live with the Indians.  This showcases how women are weaker minded and easily swayed mentally.  It isn’t until Debbie is rescued by the white male, that she seems to snap out of her Comanche trance.  The idea furthers itself when Ethan goes into a room full of other women who were kidnapped by the Comanches (while searching for Debbie with Jeffrey).  These women act like they have completely lost all sense of humanity and are depicted as stereotypical savages.  Yet another example of how only women seem to be the ones ever manipulated and are continuously represented as the weaker sex.

Women in “The Searchers” are also portrayed as being incapable of handling extreme pressure.  When Lucy (Debbie’s sister) realizes that they are about to be attacked by the Comanches she screams dramatically.  The image of her screaming takes up the entire screen.  A large amount of focus is put on her terror and powerlessness.  Compared to all of the other family members, she is overly dramatic.  Her own mother ends up slapping her to get her to calm down.  But her younger sister (who at this point seems more mature than Lucy herself) and father appear very calm.  Eventually the viewer discovers that once she was captured, Lucy was later killed. 

The one female character who breaks the mold of the weak/defenseless woman actually happens to be Martha.  While the Comanches early on in the film kill her, her short amount of screen time depicts her as a capable strong-minded woman.  Even during the scene shortly before the Comanches attack she appears to be able to handle the pressure.  She helps push her daughter to a safer location, she works on calming Lucy down (ironically, by slapping her), and is selfless in her actions.  This stronger female character does not live long and leaves one to question: why is there not a single strong lead female in “The Searchers”?

-Bonnie Hance

Singin’ In The Rain.

Everyone always has their own idea of how things in the world are. In Singin’ in the Rain, we can see a perspective of how different one’s own opinion of the world can be from the actually of what’s happening. Though this is not new to modern day movie watchers, or those of the past who watched this film during it’s debut, it is an often unnoticed aspect of both film and culture.

From the beginning, we see that Hollywood executives have created drama and story line purely to generate profit by claiming that stars Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont create such great onscreen chemistry because of their real life connection. They mention on more than one occasion that any change to the stage relationship Don and Lina are rumored to have would be detrimental to their stardom. This is paired with the notion that the newest technology, the talking picture, is both a disgraceful thing, and it is a fad that will go away. The audience is tricked once more when the movie “The Dancing Cavalier” first plays into thinking that Lina has a beautiful speaking and singing voice. From these three examples, we see how common it is to be of a firm belief, but to be quite wrong in that belief. It doesn’t have a large negative effect on most of the characters–Don and Kathy presumably go on to become big stars in the talkies, the studio started the transition to movies with sound and had a positive first outcome, and the public seems more excited by the actual love story of Don and Kathy, since it’s real, than with the fake one that was “forced” on them­. Indeed, it is only Lina, who was generally disliked by the rest, who was laughed out of the spotlight. This, however, could be caused by the fact that she not only buys into the studio’s fabricated romance between Don and herself, but also because she is an uncaring person who seeks to destroy Kathy’s career so that hers may continue to thrive.

This movie is also an interesting piece to look at in the context of ancestry of modern films. Though the musical has close to died out, with fewer and fewer being released on an annual basis, there remains the select few which still win the hearts of the masses. It is however more interesting and relevant to see where we have come with the romantic comedy. From film’s early beginnings, it was rather unclear the outcome it would have. Early films were similar to plays, couldn’t rely on dialogue, and were confined to small spaces due to the immobility of the cameras. With this film, we see how the narrative of film has changed, even the differences of over the top acting in “Cavaliers” compared to the more realistic approach of “Singin,’” this movie is almost historical in it’s documentation of film, and the industry wide transition from silent to talkie.

Ben Gross