Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) is a young woman who is sold to a traveling circus strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) by her impoverished mother. Together Zampanò and Gelsomina tour the Italian countryside, perform on streets for small sums of money and develop an unusual relationship. He is a gruff and abusive man prone to binge drinking, while she's naïve, fragile and almost otherworldly in her endless optimism. Only after meeting a wild circus performer named The Fool (Richard Baseheart), the characters are forced to change for good in tragic ways.
The black & white cinematography looks very beautiful, as does director Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina. She plays the role with very exaggerated expressions but it only adds to her strange charisma, whereas Richard Baseheart's over-the-top antics as the fiddle-playing jokester come across as more annoying than amusing. In a way this makes his ultimate fate all the more meaningful to the theme of the film though. Is the theme submission? Oppression? Guilt is certainly one of the important emotions explored by the story, but the rest can be figured out by each audience member themselves.
Even though I don't personally consider La strada Fellini's best film, it is a calm and beautiful experience all the same. Some technicalities like the obvious dubbing and subsequent bad lip-syncing hurt the impact a little, but they're only minor complaints in an otherwise well-created film. It's not for everyone, but those with patience and interest in meditative art films may find it very rewarding.
The black & white cinematography looks very beautiful, as does director Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina. She plays the role with very exaggerated expressions but it only adds to her strange charisma, whereas Richard Baseheart's over-the-top antics as the fiddle-playing jokester come across as more annoying than amusing. In a way this makes his ultimate fate all the more meaningful to the theme of the film though. Is the theme submission? Oppression? Guilt is certainly one of the important emotions explored by the story, but the rest can be figured out by each audience member themselves.
Even though I don't personally consider La strada Fellini's best film, it is a calm and beautiful experience all the same. Some technicalities like the obvious dubbing and subsequent bad lip-syncing hurt the impact a little, but they're only minor complaints in an otherwise well-created film. It's not for everyone, but those with patience and interest in meditative art films may find it very rewarding.