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July 6, 2008
Fellini’s second trilogy started with La Strada (1954) and Il Bidone (1955) and finished with The Nights of Cabiria Le Notti di Cabiria (1957). The trilogy on Reconstruction Italy was dedicated to themes of people living on the margins of society (street dancer, swindler and a prostitute) that despite their rough lives eventually experience radical life change, call it redemption.
I watched a DVD of Il Bidone over the weekend.Il Bidone ends with mortally wounded swindler reaching toward a passing religious procession, unsuccessfully crying for help. The possibility of joining the procession after a painful death is left open. The contrary case could be that this is Fellini's tragic tale of salvation.
It was rather stark portrait of confidence men who trick the poor out of what little money they have. There are some moments of good cinema, most particularly a party scene that lasts about ten minutes and is almost perfectly put together, and the climax, in which Augusto, suffering from terrible injuries, crawls towards his death.
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