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 Fellini's films. In Nights of Cabiria , the film begins and ends with water.
Water is also a symbol of purification.
All rights reserved. A bishop and a priest are chauffeured to the rural home of two peasant sisters. They recount the story of an unnamed man who has made a deathbed confession of burying a treasure chest along with a murdered victim by a tree in the middle of their property. The confessor has bequeathed the hidden bounty to the landowners, in exchange for 500 masses to be held in his memory. It is a fantastic tale that is made plausible by the seeming benevolence of the two clergymen.