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One of the finest films ever made; `La Strada' is a magnificent feat in cinema. I have been a fan of Federico Fellini ever since seeing the magnificent `8 ½', but I must confess that `La Strada' is the best film I've seen from him and the one that will continue to shake me for years to come. A beautiful, yet tragic tale of love and ignorance, and love IN ignorance, `La Strada' is a priceless portrayal of ones inability to transcend their own ingrained survival instincts and embrace what is right in front of their face; love.
The film seems like a simple tale. Gelsomina is the eldest child in a poor single parent family who is sold to Zampano, a muscle-bound sideshow act who had previously purchased Gelsomina's sister (who is now deceased). Gelsomina is a simple girl, not too intelligent and completely naïve to the way of the world. Zampano is not much different though, even if he seems it. He too is a simple man, but he is less ignorant when it comes to the world and more ignorant when it comes to human relationships. He seems on the outset to be cruel and demanding, but he is merely acting in the only way he understands, most likely the way he was treated as a child. He thus treats Gelsomina, not as a lover or a wife but as a child, disciplining her with beatings and putting her down, constantly controlling her. When one really dissects his actions though, they are clearly expressions of love gone terribly wrong.
Unlike the `monsters' created in cinema today to express the severity of spousal abuse, Zampano is far from a monster. He is a confused and conditioned man, lacking the ability to break his shell and better himself.
Gelsomina is your typical victim, but her stunted comprehension of society's workings makes her almost a victim of herself. She finds herself thrust into a world that she is not privy to, and instead of learning to adapt she forcibly resists, or just cowers in cowardice. She lacks the drive to find herself, even though she is given the perfect opportunity to become her own person. When she does attempt to make those steps she backs down at the first sign of opposition, which leads her to coil back even further into the shell she builds to protect her from harm.
The one thing that I think cannot be argued, but so frequently is, is the fact that Zampano and Gelsomina are in love. I know that this may seem odd and maybe even impossible when one looks at the events taking place, but events must be considered in context, and context to me proves that these two were ignorant in their own understanding of love, thus they acted foolishly and tragically in the name of a feeling they were too prideful, and maybe even stupid, to acknowledge. I don't want to get into much of the film, and especially not the ending, but when one watches the film I think it is important to look at the unseen as much as the seen. The actors do a masterful job of exposing their character's inner motives without really exposing them, keeping up a guard and making you wonder.
When that guard is broken down by the discerning viewer a completely different conclusion can be drawn.
The performances are all brilliant, especially Giulietta Masina who is startling as Gelsomina. Her almost speechless performance is elevated by her ability to convey so much with her face (that cute little artichoke). She has an almost theatrical quality that really fits the tone of the film well (beings that the circus is a major theme) and so it shows that she was observant of her character's surroundings and incorporated them into her performance. Anthony Quinn is also stunning as Zampano, giving him a layer of almost undetectable vulnerability (like I said, the unseen). I also really enjoyed Richard Basehart's jovial portrayal of Il Matto, Zampano's circus rival. His character is really one of the most challenging to discern, but when one finds their impression of the man then, and only then, can they understand their feelings of Zampano and Gelsomina. He is really the crux in their relationship, and ones impression of Il Matto greatly influences their impressions of the two leads.
This film is truly an outstanding cinematic accomplishment and rests easily at the top of my personal favorite films of all time. It is beautifully shot, expertly paced, crisply directed, brilliantly acted and, above all else, marvelously written. It covers all of it's bases in a way that many films cannot.
This one is definitely essential!
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From the manufacturer
Federico Fellini's exquisitely poetic and moving vision of the human struggle to survive
With this breakthrough film, Federico Fellini launched both himself and his wife and collaborator Giulietta Masina to international stardom, breaking with the neorealism of his early career in favor of a personal, poetic vision of life as a bittersweet carnival. The infinitely expressive Masina registers both childlike wonder and heartbreaking despair as Gelsomina, loyal companion to the traveling strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn, in a toweringly physical performance), whose callousness and brutality gradually wear down her gentle spirit. Winner of the very first Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, La strada possesses the purity and timeless resonance of a fable and remains one of cinema’s most exquisitely moving visions of humanity struggling to survive in the face of life’s cruelties.
Blu-ray Special Edition Features
- 4K digital restoration
- Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Peter Bondanella
- Introduction by filmmaker Martin Scorsese
- Documentaries about Masina and Fellini
"What a funny face! Are you a woman, really? Or an artichoke?"
The face in question belongs to the enchanting Giulietta Masina. And the movie is LA STRADA (1954), director Federico Fellini's haunting tale about the strange relationship between an innocent young waif and the boorish circus performer who takes her under his wing.LA STRADA ("The Road") is one of the watershed movies of Italian cinema, and also launched the international careers of director Federico Fellini and his actress wife Giulietta Masina in the process. Amongst many accolades, the movie walked away with the 1956 Academy Award for 'Best Foreign Language Film'.The story is one of the most haunting, heartbreaking ones you'll ever encounter; it will remain in your soul long after the credits have rolled. A charming, somewhat backward waif named Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) is plucked from her carefree family home on the seashore and placed into the employment of Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a vagabond circus strong-man. Complications arise when Zampano's old adversary, a highwire artist named 'The Fool' (Richard Basehart) returns to the scene. What follows will prove fateful for the trio...The heartrending performance of Giulietta Masina is pure perfection. Every glance, facial expression, physical gesture shows us exactly what is happening inside the head and heart of this most magical, haunting screen character. The audience goes along for the same emotional ride that the character of Gelsomina does. Federico Fellini fashioned this film as a showcase for his talented wife. Acclaimed performances in "Nights of Cabiria" and "Juliet of the Spirits" would follow in later years, and while Masina was always superbly good in anything she did, LA STRADA was and forever will be her best ever screen performance.Zampano is a totally unsavoury character and the audience is never meant to find any kind of sympathy toward him. The most challenging, thankless assignment for any actor is to play such a character, but Anthony Quinn delivers what he can given the limits of the material. Richard Basehart is a lovely presence as 'The Fool', one of the lone adult characters who actually seems to care for the neglected Gelsomina. The musical score by Nino Rota is likewise so very haunting, particularly "Gelsomina's Theme" which recurs throughout the second half of the film.If you want a film which illustrates--so movingly--the sheer joy and heartbreak of simply being alive, you must see LA STRADA. I guarantee you'll never be the same...
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2009
- Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2004
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RayReviewed in Germany on April 6, 2016
Die Geschichte von Zampano und Gelsomina...
