Description: This lyrical masterpiece, winner of over 50 international awards, marked the emergence of the "Fellini-esque" style. The heart-wrenching story, about a slow-witted innocent (Masina) who idolizes an abusive, circus strongman, is punctuated by magical vignettes that have been praised for their humor, pathos, and beauty.
Amazon.com essential video: Considered by many to be Federico Fellini's most beautiful and powerful film, La Strada was the first film to reveal the range of Guilietta Masina, whose poignant performance as the childlike Gelsomina recalls Chaplin's Little Tramp. The bubbly, waiflike Gelsomina is a simpleton sold to the gruff, bullying circus strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) as a servant and assistant. Treated no better than an animal, Gelsomina nonetheless falls in love with the brute Zampanò. When they join a small circus they meet Il Matto (Richard Basehart), a clown who enchants Gelsomina and relentlessly taunts Zampanò, whose inability to control his hatred of Il Matto (literally, "the Fool") leads to their expulsion from the circus and eventually to the film's fateful conclusion. Masina is heartbreaking as the wide-eyed innocent, whose generous spirit and love of life leads her to try to "save" Quinn's unfeeling, brutal Zampanò. Though the film resonates with mythic and biblical dimensions, Fellini never loses sight of his characters, lovingly painted in all their frailties and failings. Fellini's lyrical style reaches back to the simple beauty of his neorealist films and looks ahead to the impressionistic fantasies of later films, but at this unique period in Fellini's career, they combine to create a poetic, tragic masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Good early Fellini
Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini's 1954 black and white film La Strada (The Road) is one of those films that is midway between his early Neo-Realism and his later Magical Realism, with touches of both aplenty. It made both him and its female lead, his wife Giulieta Masina, stars, won the 1954 Venice Film Festival's top award and the 1956 Best Foreign Picture Academy Award, yet there is something missing from it. It is a good film, arguably a very good or near-great film, but it is definitely not a great film. It lacks the intellectual and artistic depth that the couple's next famed collaboration, ... Read More
Rating: - "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'.
Rating: - Thin, slow and boring...
Italian film with English Subtitles set in 1950's. A quirky young girl (Gelsomina) lives with her Mother and 4 siblings in poverty. She is sold by her Mother to a traveling strong man performer (Zampano). Zampano is a man of few words - he is cold, cruel, a brute, a womanizer and a hard drinker in his time off. He roughly trains Gelsomina to be is assistant and she learns how to play a drum and trumpet. She is small, delicate and "imp-like" spirit - seeing the beauty and optimism in all things. Along their journey they run into a Fool which teaches Gelsomina why she was brought to be with Zampano. ... Read More
Rating: - The Road of Life
She's simple and innocent. He's a cunning brute. He buys her from her own mother and turns her into his personal servant, mattress and partner. He's a strongman and her makes her bang a drum and play a clown. He acts like an animal and treats her like one. Everyone keeps asking why she won't leave him. She never says why. Such a simple story and so profound and moving, sad and touching. Fellini's first unqualified masterpiece explores ideas of lonliness, humanity and belonging.
Rating: - Brilliant and depressing
La Strada is ultimately a grim and downbeat tale, but the director Fellini makes you care about the characters involved. Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) is forced to live and work with Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a circus strongman. She lives with Zampano in the back of a small motorcycle trailer, and the conditions are frankly squalid, as are most of the places where they work. 'The Fool' (Richard Basehart) is the fly in the ointment, who attempts to lure Gelsomina away from Zampino with tragic results.
La Strada and Fellini was a huge influence on a number of famous films. 'Godfather II' copies ... Read More
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