LA STRADA Movie Review

The Road

At the price of a dish of pasta, a dim-witted peasant girl named Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) is literally sold to a traveling performer named Zampano (Anthony Quinn), who will use her in his strong-man act, and will use her sexually as well. During their travels around the country, Zampano's brutality to Gelsomina is unrelenting—yet she stays with him for many reasons. Even Gelsomina has a breaking point, however, and its arrival is perhaps the most wrenching moment in any of the films of Federico Fellini. La Strada, a heartbreaking and powerful fable about shattered faith, loneliness, and the possibility of redemption, was a worldwide sensation, catapulting Fellini to international fame. Giulietta Masina's tender, waif-like performance—which owes quite a bit to the work of great silent performers like Chaplin— proved not only a revelation, but was accessible to audiences everywhere; even people who had never considered attending a foreign-language film found themselves touched and haunted by the memory of her victimized, loyal Gelsomina. It is here in which the real power of La Strada can be found; though Gelsomina's treatment by Zampano almost literally as baggage is an exaggerated theatrical image, the dynamics of the relationship are not nearly so exaggerated—or rare—as they might look. If women respond to La Strada with recognition, and men with guilt, it may be time to see it as considerably more than a simple fable about the bleak fates awaiting one strongman and his victim. With Richard Basehart as the gentle high-wire walker II Matto. Nino Rota's brilliant score, with its haunting, circus-like themes, is one of the most important contributions to La Strada's success. Academy Award Winner, Best Foreign Language Film; Nominee for Best Original Screenplay.

NEXT STOP … I Vitelloni, Nights of Cabiria, 81/2

1954 107m/B IT Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani; D: Federico Fellini; W: Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi, Tullio Pinelli, Federico Fellini; M: Nino Rota. Academy Awards '56: Best Foreign Film; New York Film Critics Awards '56: Best Foreign Film; Nominations: Academy Awards '56: Best Original Screenplay. VHS, LV IME, HMV