LA
STRADA
DIRECTED BY:
FEDERICO FELLINI - WRITTEN BY:
FEDERICO FELLINI, TULLIO PINELLI, ENNIO FLAJANO
STARRING: ANTHONY QUINN, GIULIETTA MASINA, RICHARD
BASEHART, ALDO SILVANI
AWARD: BEST
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM -
LANGUAGE: ITALIAN
WITH SUBTITLES - RELEASED I954
Anthony
Quinn, a major acting talent, was never shy about working
in foreign films if things were slow in Hollywood. He
struck gold several times on his foreign sojourns, one film
being
Zorba the Greek (I964);
another was
La Strada, an Italian
production directed by Federico Fellini. He plays Zampano,
a traveling circus strongman in his professional life; in
his personal life a selfish lout. His constant companion is
Gelsomina (Guilietta Masina, Fellini's wife), a perhaps
retarded girl who acts as general factotum and second
banana in his strongman act. Her poor family sells her to
Zampano, and so she feels she cannot leave him, even though
she soon realizes that Zampano is bad news. The third main
character is Il Matto, "The Fool", a circus clown played by
American actor Richard Basehart.
Italians
who knew the film had seen Zampano before: Benito Mussolini
was the bragging strongman dictator who had delivered Italy
to such utter devastation I0 years before during World War
II. But it's also Fellini's personal story on the plight of
the artist, who like "The Fool" must constantly deal with
the inert Zampano’s of the world who take their mindless
schemes and actions very seriously.
Equally a star
in this Italian road film is Zampano’s motorcycle-cart
3-wheeler, a product of Italy’s postwar economic vehicle
and gas shortages. Together they ply the highways of Italy
in search of coins placed in a hat. Zampano’s act consists
of one note: Accompanied by Gelsomina on horn, with much
boasting about his own strength; a chain wrapped around his
chest, he inhales until the chain opens. If you've ever
seen newsreel footage of Mussolini, you'd recognize Zampano
in an instant.
Gelsomina
is torn between her love of life on the road and her hatred
of Zampano. Complications arise when Zampano joins a
circus, and Gelsomina meets a clown, The Fool, a talented
and poignant artist, who can’t resist teasing Zampano about
the idiocy of his act, and the two become sworn enemies.
Gelsomina immediately sees the clown as superior to
Zampano, but stubbornly won't leave him, even waiting for
him while he's in jail. For her troubles, she earns only
slaps, and the label of insane.
Federico
Fellini came from the only new school of film-makers that
rose after the fascist period in Italy, the neo-realists.
They were without funds, so these Marxist-inspired
film-makers shot in the streets, often with non-actors. And
within this new paradigm, they made some of the best
Italian films of all time, such as
Bicycle Thief (I948),
Umberto D (I952)
and
Open City (I945).
As in any school of art, the individuals were soon going in
all directions and denouncing each other. For introducing
the spiritual and the comedic into his films,
La Strada earned Fellini
the bitter enmity of his old Communist pals, but Fellini
felt that man had more than just the social dimension
preached by Marxist ideology. However if you want to see
Zampano as the exploitative class, Gelsomina as the people,
and The Fool as Fellini's alter ego, you could; if you're
interested in Italian politics of the era. Others have seen
Zampano as body, Gelsomina as spirit, and The Fool as mind;
which is a better fit.
La
Strada is more than
symbolism. The humor in this film taps traditions as old as
commedia dell’arte; as new (at the time) as the Marx
brothers and Chaplin; and like Chaplin the pathos of the
characters is never far from the surface.
La Strada is acted and
directed with such a light hand and deft ear that it seems
the heart must follow.
scenes from the film: coming
soon
©Features-on-Film