La Strada (film)
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| La Strada | |
|---|---|
| Image:LaStrada2.jpg Original movie poster | |
| Directed by | Federico Fellini |
| Produced by | Dino De Laurentiis Carlo Ponti |
| Written by | Federico Fellini Ennio Flaiano Tullio Pinelli |
| Starring | Anthony Quinn Giulietta Masina Richard Basehart |
| Music by | Nino Rota |
| Cinematography | Otello Martelli |
| Editing by | Leo Cattozzo |
| Distributed by | Trans Lux Inc. |
| Release date(s) | Image:Flag of Italy.svg September 6, 1954 (premiere at VFF) Image:Flag of Italy.svg September 22, 1954 Image:Flag of the United States.svg 16 July, 1956 |
| Running time | 104 min. |
| Language | Italian |
| IMDb profile | |
La Strada (The Road) is a 1954 Italian movie, directed by Federico Fellini. Fellini cast his wife, Giulietta Masina, in the starring role of young elfin Gelsomina. The concept of the film has been compared to Commedia dell'arte, and Masina's performance has been compared to Charlie Chaplin in a commentary by Martin Scorsese.[citation needed]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
La Strada tells the story of Gelsomina, a clownish young girl sold for few coins by her impoverished mother to carnival strong man Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), who makes a living by drawing a crowd to a square, expanding his chest to break a chain, and then passing the hat. Zampanò is physically and emotionally cruel, and viciously trains Gelsomina as his sidekick. She has a bird-like quality, delicate and strangely beautiful, as well as a prophetic ability to predict the weather, yet she is unable to avoid the brutish Zampanò’s fits of rage and violence. Nonetheless, she retains an indefatigable child-like optimism. Along the road they encounter 'The Fool' (Richard Basehart), a circus acrobat and clown who teaches Gelsomina that there might be more to life than her servitude to Zampanò. Despite this, he talks her out of leaving him. The Fool and Zampanò have a long-standing enmity, and when Zampanò kills the Fool in a rage, it breaks Gelsomina's spirit. When Zampano realizes this, he leaves her, experiencing remorse for the first time in his life. Years later, when he learns of her death, he breaks down.
[edit] Music
The theme music, composed by Nino Rota, contains a wistful tune which appears in the story line as a melody played by the Fool on a miniature violin, and later by Gelsomina after she teaches herself to play the trumpet. At the end of the movie, Zampano learns of Gelsomina's death when he hears a young woman singing this melody in a town he travels through, and he asks her where she learned it.
Gelsomina, in her childish view of the world around her, considers herself to be an artist because she learns to play the snare drum and trumpet, and to do a bit of dancing and play a clown. This lends a comic element to her character, which blends ironically with the melancholy story line.
[edit] Awards
La Strada received the NYFCC Award in 1956 and received the first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1957.
[edit] External links
| Federico Fellini |
|---|
|
Variety Lights (1950) • The White Sheik (1951) • I Vitelloni (1953) • L'Amore in Città (1953) • La Strada (1954) • Il Bidone (1955) • Nights of Cabiria (1957) • La Dolce Vita (1960) • Boccaccio '70 (1962) • 8½ (1963) • Juliet of the Spirits (1965) • Satyricon (1969) • I Clowns (1970) • Roma (1972) • Amarcord (1973) • Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (1976) • Prova d'orchestra (1979) • La città delle donne (1980) • E la Nave Va (1983) • Ginger and Fred (1986) • Intervista (1987) • La voce della luna (1990) |
| Preceded by: Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto | Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1956 | Succeeded by: Nights of Cabiria |
es:La Strada fr:La Strada hr:Cesta (1954) it:La strada ja:道 (映画) pl:La Strada (film) ro:La Strada ru:Дорога (фильм, 1954)
