Comparison of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria and La Dolce Vita

Nights of Cabiria and La Dolce Vita left me absolutely stunned, in awe of what I had just witnessed. I found both of these films to be unspeakably beautiful, and in my opinion, the best out of all Fellini's major motion pictures which I have attempted to view this semester. Both films are unmistakably "Fellini" in the characteristic that define his films, especially through the world of fantasy, and deserve a thorough comparison.

In La Dolce Vita, we are given a glimpse of a filmmaker that has moved far neo-realist roots. While Nights Of Cabiria was certainly a departure from neo-realism, (and far less neo-realist than La Strada, which was just one picture before this one) it certainly had many more neo-realist elements (the plight of the poor and oppressed) than La Dolce Vita. La Dolce Vita would introduce us to a world almost never considered before in Fellini's films, that of the bourgeois, or upper-class. A film following a protagonist from party to party among the rich is practically a slap in the face to the neorealist movement Therefore it is often said that Nights of Cabiria marks the conclusion of the first phase of his career and La Dolce Vita the beginning of the next. I prefer to see his films as a continuous visual timeline of Fellini's artistic growth.

Both La Dolce Vita and Nights of Cabiria unfold in an episodic manner. While Nights Of Cabiria has a tighter, more traditional narrative structure, La Dolce Vita is practically a series of short films. The combination of these scenes is what leads to the complexity of the film's message. When it is asked of us, "What are these films about?" there really is no easy answer because they are about so much. Each passing episode carries a meaning of its own that adds to the overall meaning of the picture. Both films contain the typical Fellini clowns, ethnic performers, false appearances of the Virgin Mary, as well as other religious symbolism, nightclubs, prostitutes, stone