La Strada (1954)

Starring: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Baseheart, Aldo Silvani, Marcella Rovere

First, The Lowdown: A poor girl is sold to a circus performer and works on the road

In the poverty-stricken countryside of postwar Italy, a traveling strongman, Zampano, arrives to the home of an aging widow with some bad news. The widow’s daughter, Rosa (who was Zampano’s assistant), met with an accident and is dead. Beyond the widow’s grief lies the fear of how she will be able to care for her children – Rosa was sending her pay to her mother to support her family. However, Gelsomina, is of the perfect age, even if she is a little slow-minded.

Life on the road isn’t all fun and games however. In line with his strongman act, Zampano is an equally brutal man who frequently belittles and abuses Gelsomina. However, he is the only family she has, and while busking from village to village is hard, it’s easier than scrounging to survive with her family in the country.

One evening, Gelsomina is awestruck by the Fool, a high-wire performer. Eventually the pair signs up with a traveling circus, where the Fool is also signed up with. However, the Fool churlishly insults Zampano, sending the strongman into a rage. Their brawl is broken up by the police, and now scandalized, the circus tells both Zampano and the Fool to leave. They offer to take Gelsomina in, but she demurs, having grown too accustomed to Zampano’s presence.

Once again drifting, Gelsomina and Zampano run into the Fool once more, changing the tire for his car off the side of a road. Zampano takes advantage of the opportunity and beats the Fool senseless. However, Zampano underestimates his strength and the Fool dies of his injuries. Horrified at the display of brute strength and saddened at the loss of one of the few people who was kind to her, Gelsomina becomes overwhelmed by sadness.

Not being very fluent in Federico Fellini’s works, I’m finding myself in an odd position. Most film critics hail La Strada as the definitive Fellini film and the best of the Italian Neorealism cinema. Not being familiar with the former of that statement, I can only say this about the latter: the best of Neorealism can be found in De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief.

The major point of contention I have for La Strada is its pacing – it seems to take a while to get anywhere, and by the time we get there the movie is almost over. Much of that time is taken up by setting the theme and then by reestablishing it over and over. By the forth or fifth iteration of seeing how harsh and abusive Zampano is to Gelsomina, I found myself hoping the director would get to the point. (Not a good sign for a film.)

On a more positive note, La Strada shows how well Fellini can present characterization. Our players are not given very much back story - in fact, any attempt at it is rebuffed: Gelsomina keeps asking Zampano about her late sister Rosa, only to be ignored. But the characters aren’t one-dimensional. If anything they appear to be both archetypal and play off each other: Zampano keeps belittling Gelsomina’s simple-mindedness, but at the same time keeps displaying a different kind of folly.

Line of the movie: “I don't know for what this pebble is useful but it must be useful. For if it’s useless, everything is useless. So are the stars!”

Three and a half stars. One size fits all