soapwool

There are some films that are so bad they're good, some that are overall bad but are worth watching for some interesting concepts brought up or other redeeming qualities - but I just don't recommend watching this one at all. It would be more valuable to take the premise and write something yourself, as that might be at least a little more interesting (and original).

As others have stated, there are many directions this film could have gone, and nearly all of them might have been better.

The premise quite nicely allows for intrigue and horror aspects throughout, but the climax and resolution which that world leads up to are simply disappointing (and gross).

The characters are two-dimensional and mostly either bland, forgettable or unbearable (or perhaps both, unbearable in their blandness). Not to mention completely unrealistic. Motives are not clear, or legitimate motives are not present throughout. On top of this, motives are blurred even more by stupid plot-twists.

Many loose ends, ideas abandoned within minutes of their introduction, never to be brought up again.

There is nothing new here - we've got trope-filled exploitation, unlit torture rooms*, hardened victimised prostitute girls, some tacky and pointless gore, insects in stomachs**, and, drum-roll... a cheap resolution backed by cheesy pop-style music. Leaves a bad taste in your mouth and completely devalues the rest of the movie (assuming it had anything of value).

As for a PSA about human trafficking… it almost seems insulting. In fact, as mentioned in the credits themselves, there are thousands of cases of human trafficking per year - it seems insensitive to dramatize the issue unrealistically, and then pointless to watch this unrealistic movie about it when it's already happening on such a large (considering) and terrible scale.

*Which at first I questioned... Sure, it's atmospheric, but I feel being trapped in a constantly brightly-lit place would be terrible too, mess with your circadian rhythm in a terrible way. I realised it's most likely because bringing in electricians raises your risk of being caught.

**Not sure what's with this theme in horror - bugs are friends.

Whilst it is debatable whether Nights of Cabiria stands as strongly when viewed with a modern eye, it was well deserving of the Oscar it was awarded at the time, and it's certainly still a moving and interesting film. The almost ostracising Italian and mid 1900s culture pervading this world makes viewing mildly difficult to chew, and along with those those affronting and slightly discomfiting tentative shots, long, demanding looks at the camera and Signorina Cabiria's frankly… comic owl-like eyebrows it certainly doesn't feel like a modern film. The change and character of Cabiria is quite beautiful really (reflected also in the riddance and softening of those eyebrows, thank God) and this humanness carries to the modern viewer. It's slow all throughout, and the first hour or so is realistic, consistent with real life - some interesting snapshots, but mostly pointless and in the scheme of things, insignificant, happenings. It's not perfect, by any means, even grating or simply boring at times, but I was left with such a pretty feel that I couldn't move on without making a comment. The acting, old-fashioned shots, those terrible eyebrows, and how everyone yells at each other, these foreign interactions, were odd for me, part of the… not imperfection actually, but just experience I suppose. The character once again glows through, Cabiria is an unpolished gem, a human gem. I think it's worth a watch.