At The Movies: Cabrini
The remarkable true story which graphically depicts the horrendous conditions endured by early Italian migrants in New York in the late 1800s.
Francesca Cabrini (Italian actress Cristiana Dell’Anna) is a nun in Northern Italy who has a dream and burning ambition to set up orphanages across the world. However, being a woman at that time in history creates massive roadblocks. Eventually, the Pope (Giancarlo Giannini) reluctantly agrees to her outrageous plan and she, along with six other Sisters, is sent to New York in 1889.
The area allocated to Italian migrants is hideous and dangerous and she gets little or no support from New York’s resident Archbishop Corrigan (David Morse). Cabrini sets about getting orphaned children off the streets and young girls out of prostitution. The attitude of locals, including – and especially – Mayor Gould (John Lithgow) is that the Italians are illiterate scum and deserve no place in their community.
Cabrini’s ill-health appears to be worsening – a legacy from a near-drowning incident when she was young which left her with a debilitating lung condition. She is faced with adversity at every corner of her remarkable journey. Her determination never to accept “no” as an answer sees her as a formidable foe to the establishment of New York.
The attitude to migrants, and women in particular, is blatantly portrayed throughout this excellent movie. The living conditions are so well depicted you feel like you can actually smell the putrid stench. Some attitudes change, but most don’t appear to, when Cabrini enlists the help of reporter Calloway. When she approaches him with “rats live better than we do” he scoffs, so to convince him she escorts him to the area known as Five Points.
Wherever Cabrini goes she is ousted by the authorities, under the control of the Mayor. Her resolve never fades despite the never-ending obstacles at a time when women had no voice, and her expected short life expectancy. This is one of the better movies I have seen in recent years and I will certainly be watching it again!
Movie Review by John Glennie
Rating: PG
Runtime: 145 minutes
