Word: gelsomina
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...Fellini's early masterpiece and the film that brought him international acclaim, "La Strada" has been out of distribution since 1988. The timeless story of an innocent peasant girl employed and seduced by an itinerant circus strongman. Giulietta Masina is outstanding as Gelsomina the waif, and Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart's performances equal hers as the two men in her life...
Guilietta Masina is charming as the wide eyed Gelsomina, who seems unable to get angry over others' cruelty to her. Masina's Gelsomina gazes at the world with wonder, although there can be little wonderful about its realities for her. Fellini offsets her timidity, which practically amounts to a social stupidity, against her purity of spirit. The combination gives her a childlike, saintly aura...
...venting his desires or angers. This doesn't stop him from posturing as a refined man in hand medown-suits. Nor does it stop him from bullying everybody but paying customers. In fact, his apparent awareness of his own crudeness only increases his need to and pleasure in commanding Gelsomina, beating her and boasting about "how he taught her everything she knows...
Their life together meets a fateful disruption when they arrive in Rome and join up with a tent circus group at the edge of town. Here Gelsomina meets "The Fool" (Richard Basehart), player of the world's smallest violin. The Fool has a gentle poetic nature, and falls for Gelsomina immediately. She is so shocked that someone is being kind to her that she walks into the doorpost. But The Fool and Zampano have an old rivalry that will not die. Gelsomina blindly loves Zampano. However, she also loves The Fool. How this triangle finally resolves itself and what happens...
...visually stunning. Fellini uses warm sepia-washed black and white film throughout, and alternates between a soft and hard focus lense filter. Very rarely does he use either pure black or white. In a Bergmanesque fashion, he places the camera strategically to strengthen the film's allegorical strains. Gelsomina is always seen from slightly above, as if she were being watched by a guardian angel. During an Easter parade the camera looks upwards, circling around the massive crosses to emphasize their grandeur. Fellini then once again switches to following Gelsomina's passage through the crowd from above, placing her frailty...