La Strada, by Fellini
LA STRADA (1954) Italian with English subtitles. 108 minutes.
La Strada brings two souls together to tell a story that ultimately displays humanity's finer aspects. The title gives a clue to the meaning of Fellini's masterpiece: The Way. The brute, Zampano, buys the urchin-like Gelsomina to be his traveling companion in his one-man carnival act. He is physically and emotionally cruel to her. Her longing to love and be loved, and her child-like, yet acute perception of life, and desire to live it, despite hardships, makes her the perfect complement to the selfish and despicable Zampano. Their unification affects each other. However, although Zampano's harshness adversely effects Gelsomina's life, it is her influence that will eventually, and more significantly, change him. Resembling the familiar Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, it is more than a love story. It is about love, but it isn't until the very end of the film that we realize it. More than love, it is about a man who gains insight and awareness, because of love. It is his finale transformation that demonstrates both the frailty and vitality of the human condition. It overpoweringly suggests that the individual, no matter how depraved, can spiritually evolve.
Characteristically mingling elements of biography with metaphor and symbolism, La Strada combines an easygoing charm with a hard-edged realism, a formula that made the film the first winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film.
Federico Fellini -
Born in Rimini, Italy in 1920, Federico Fellini almost drifted into film-making by mistake. Aged 19 he went to study at the University of Rome, where he met and later married Giulietta Masina. Intrigued by the portrayal of journalism in film, he decided to try out the role in real life, submitting articles and amusing editors with his cartoons and caricatures. When Roberto Rossellini wanted leading vaudeville comedian Aldo Fabrizi to play the lead in Rome, Open City (1945), he made the contact through Fellini, who was a friend of the actor. Thus Fellini ended up working on the script a little and observing the processes in the editing room. Italian films at the time placed much emphasis on image as dialogue was often dubbed later. This was to later inform Fellini’s work with a vivid, visual style. He became a director of uniquely personal films that celebrate the ceaseless carnival of life. Winner of four Oscars, Federico Fellini has had an immense impact on contemporary film. His groundbreaking work has influenced and inspired such celebrated directors as Woody Allan, Terry Gilliam and David Lynch. Included in this collection is Fellini’s debut: comedy The White Sheik (also his first collaboration with composer Nino Rota), the Oscar-winning La Strada, the film that propelled him to the world stage and neo-realist Oscar-winning masterpiece Nights Of Cabiria - available here for the first time on UK DVD and also released individually.