{"id":28081,"date":"2013-08-17T21:56:21","date_gmt":"2013-08-18T04:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=28081"},"modified":"2013-08-18T13:23:18","modified_gmt":"2013-08-18T20:23:18","slug":"la-strada-federico-fellini-1954-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=28081","title":{"rendered":"La Strada (Federico Fellini, 1954): Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 An elfish, insignificant woman wanders about the seaside, gazing\u00a0out over the horizon,\u00a0as distant voices call\u00a0to her\u00a0“Gelsomina!\u00a0 Gelsomina!”<\/p>\n

Gelsomina\u00a0(Guilietta Masina) comes from a poor family with many younger siblings.\u00a0 Her mother has just accepted 10,000 lire from Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a performer in a strongman act, in exchange for Gelsomina replacing\u00a0her recently deceased sister, as his “partner.”<\/p>\n

A brutish womanizer, Zampano brags that he can “even teach dogs.”\u00a0 Casually pulling a switch from a nearby bush, he lashes it across Gelsomina, in order to extract a more commanding performance from her.\u00a0 The much sheltered Gelsomina quickly\u00a0learns to clown and play the snare drum, performs for the audience while introducing Zampano’s act, and passes\u00a0along a hat for tips.<\/p>\n

After Zampano forces himself on her, days later he\u00a0abandons her, and runs off with a woman\u00a0he managed to pick up\u00a0during a meal with\u00a0Gelsomina!\u00a0\u00a0Finding him hungover in a field, Gelsomina\u00a0begins to accept\u00a0 Zampano as her partner, but\u00a0yearns for\u00a0love and devotion.<\/p>\n

While traveling, the two meet up with a kindly nun who offers food and shelter for the night, and is repaid in theft by Zampano.\u00a0 They also have the good fortune to perform for a wedding party, and are generously fed and sheltered, but not before Zampano engages in a tryst with the hostess of the party.<\/p>\n

Eventually\u00a0Zampano strikes a deal to join a traveling group, but to his dismay, is re-acquainted with Il Matto the Fool (Richard Basehart), a high-wire artist, and an old nemesis.\u00a0 Il Matto constantly provokes Zampano, but befriends Gelsomina.\u00a0 He attempts to teach her other performance skills, with the intent of making her a new partner, but realizing her loyalty, he explains to Gelsomina that everything has its purpose in life, even a “small pebble,” suggesting instead that maybe her purpose is to care for Zampano.\u00a0 Soon after, tragedy rears its ugly head.<\/p>\n

1954 was a transitional period for Italian neorealism, moving away from the subject of post WWII economic struggles and oppression, as in The Bicycle Thief<\/em><\/a>, to more interpersonal\u00a0conflicts and tragedies of the human emotions.<\/p>\n

La Strada <\/em><\/a>depicts the sinuous road of life, with its many twists and turns, and unexpected heartbreaks,\u00a0where harmless creatures like\u00a0Gelsomina can barely survive the cruelties of characters like Zampano, who exist by numbing their pain with distractions.<\/p>\n

Following Gelsomina’s character\u00a0through a street parade, in close ups and visible camera\u00a0movement, Fellini manages to capture a documentary feel, and continues the fluid camera movements throughout, which contributes to a naturally evolving story.<\/p>\n

The sea is a\u00a0recurring motif, associated with Gelsomina and her open and abiding spirit, while a\u00a0leitmotif is simply\u00a0played on the violin by Il Matto’s character,\u00a0and eventually becomes the mournful tune of Gelsomina.<\/p>\n

Guilietta Masina, wife of Fellini, has a natural and uninhibited style, and is a terrific contrast to Anthony Quinn’s intense persona.<\/p>\n

La Strada<\/em> won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD. \u00a0 An elfish, insignificant woman wanders about the seaside, gazing\u00a0out over the horizon,\u00a0as distant voices call\u00a0to her\u00a0“Gelsomina!\u00a0 Gelsomina!” Gelsomina\u00a0(Guilietta Masina) comes from a poor family with many younger siblings.\u00a0 Her mother has just accepted 10,000 lire from Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a performer in a strongman act, in exchange […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criterion-collection","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}