La Strada

"I can train dogs"

What can I say about this film? Fellini is one of the hallowed gods of cinema, and La Strada is one of his most revered children... I could pretty much end this review here by just saying that it's reputation is a justified one. Fellini made his mark on cinema in the 1950s by shifting the focus onto the lower classes of Italy - the peasants, the criminals, the beggars. La Strada is a big part of this shift, an elegaic ballad for the days of road entertainment in rural Italy. These are the showmen, the circus performers, the clowns both natural and learned. La Strada is a fable of humanity painted onto this canvas.

The two principle characters of La Strada are Zampano (Anthony Quinn) and Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina). You could call them villain and hero, master and apprentice, or even man and woman. The roles they play in opposition to each other are multiple. Gelsomina isn't a girl like other girls, she's something of a simpleton and a village fool. Her poor mother sells her to Zampano, a busking showman whose only real skill is to fasten a chain around his chest and then break it using his strength. Zampano is gruff and without ambition, a brute who does whatever he likes and living a disposable lifestyle. Gelsomina must adjust to life as an assistant to this gadabout, and Zampano has little appreciation for the very specific skills she has to offer.

Fellini's tone (specifically so in this film) is one of magical realism, encompassing romance and wonder in the grit of poverty. What I like about Fellini is that, despite this romance and fable-like aspect, it isn't predictable cinema and doesn't follow the formulas of Hollywood. A prime example is the scene where some children take Gelsomina to see a sickbed-stricken child... it's not a scene that really goes anywhere in the traditional sense, but there's something magical about it, especially in the way the camera follows the running children into the shadows - pulling into them and then stopping as they run further on. It's like there's this big story that's too grand and heartbreaking to tell, so Fellini just shows it to us without explanation. It's life, on the screen, and it's perfectly constructed (I also imagine the scene where the bucket of water gets thrown would've taken quite a few takes but it looks absolutely perfect).


Actually, scrap all that. La Strada is really all about Masina's performance as Gelsomina... she's wonderful at portraying the innocence of an idiot, and it never feels less than real. It's a performance evidentally influenced by the great silent comedy actors (EG. Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd), and Masina does tribute to them to capture and convey such pathos through her clowning. By contrast, Quinn is near despicable as the brute, physically intimidating as he stands over his ward like a rape-happy giant... I hated Zampano, but instead of the normal need to see such a brute punished, I found myself desiring a redemption for him. I wanted nothing more than for him to treat Gelsomina in the way that she deserved, and then they could've both been happy. That's the kind of undercurrent that plays in the film, it's a romance where the male protagonist is mentally and emotionally incapable of being even remotely romantic. Neither Zampano or Gelsomina truly know what they want, they're deficient individuals, and this is the tragedy that ultimately undoes them. Zampano doesn't know how to appreciate what he has, it embarrasses him, and when he goes too far Gelsomina becomes his ruined, mewling conscience; a reminder of his evil. She was too good for him, and in the end he knows it too.

All I'll add to that is that this is a beautiful movie. It's a work of art that's open to interpretation, astoundingly both complex and simple at the same time.

DIRECTOR: Federico Fellini
WRITER/SOURCE: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano.
KEY ACTORS: Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvano

RELATED TEXTS
- Artisically qualitative films about complex love: L'Atalante, Breaking the Waves, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Wings of Desire.
- Other Fellini films from the '50s: I Vitelloni, The Swindle, Nights of Cabiria, Variety Lights and The White Sheik.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - won Best Foreign Language Film. Also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
BAFTAs - nominated for Best Film and Best Foreign Actress (Giulietta Masina)
Venice Film Festival - won Silver Lion. Also nominated for Golden Lion.