We discuss Branson's pick Nights of Cabiria (1957), an Italian drama co-written and directed by the great auteur Federico Fellini. It stars Guilietta Masina as Cabiria, a prostitute living in Rome. The film is based on a story by Fellini. Gulietta Mansion won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival and the film won Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Cabiria has gone on to be lauded as one of the most indelible characters in all of cinema-- she is a fiercely independent sex worker who moves through the sea of Rome’s humanity through adversity and heartbreak. She must rely on herself to stay standing. Criterion writes that the film “embodies the blend of the bitter and the sweet that define Fellini’s vision of the world.”
