Netflix

This is the sixth of Fellini's films I've seen this past year, and I grow more and more convinced that this guy could've wiped his arse with celluloid and made a classic. From its cut-throat beginning straight through to the bitter end, Nights of Cabiria is simply a perfect film. Nobody captures the strange juxtapositions of Rome like Fellini--his whore Cabiria wistfully watches a line of barefoot penitents on their way to the Altar of Mary, only to have a huge lumbering dumptruck overwhelm the screen, its scuzzy driver leaning down to solicit her. Giulietta Masina broke my heart in La Strada, and she does so again here with an astonishing range and openness. She's wildly entertaining and can do genuine rage and fear and ecstacy and despair all in a row, and she's funny as hell to boot. Those big eyes were potent tools, indeed. Highly recommended.