La Strada.

Review #1386: La Strada.

Cast: 

Giulietta Masina (Gelsomina), Anthony Quinn (Zampanò), Richard Basehart (Il Matto), Aldo Silvani (Il Signor Giraffa), Marcella Rovere (La Vedova), and Livia Venturini (La Suorina) Directed by Federico Fellini.

Review: 

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life."

Influence can come from anywhere, particularly when it comes to film. Federico Fellini is certainly a director with immense stature and influence that stood the test of time for his visual style and tone displayed over his numerous films. Born in Italy in 1920 as the son of a traveling salesman, he found interest in drawing and the circus, with his first career ambition being as a gag writer and caricaturist before finding himself working with the noted satirical Italian magazine Marc'Aurelio for a couple of years. It was his work with the radio program Cico and Pallina where he met his future wife Giulietta Masina. He soon found work in screenplays, with his help on Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945) being a highlight of Italian neorealism cinema, earning him an Academy Award nomination (the first of eight as writer; he also received four nominations for directing). He would contribute numerous more scripts over the next few years before making his debut as a co-director with Variety Lights (1950). His first noted success was with I Vitelloni (1953), a comedy-drama that had touches of Fellini's life in terms of the pleasures and frustrations of growing up in a small town (as was the case with the other two screenwriters) that was done as Fellini had completed an early draft of La Strada, which was initially declined by producers. In total, Fellini won numerous accolades over a forty-year career, including having four of his films winning an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film (most for any director) along with a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for La Dolce Vita. 

One can only hope to have themselves on the road watching a film like this in their lifetime, since this proves to a road worth taking that is bittersweet but worth every moment it plays its parable (with the characters representing natural elements like water, earth, and fire) with a dynamic cast to go along with everything in motion. A haunting look (alongside the practice of the time in shooting being done without sound) contributes to the blend of fantasy and reality that strikes the heart for 104 minutes without breaking its integrity. Masina excels with innocence, a performance that strikes at the heart with curiosity with pathos in her troubles that make up the paradoxical nature of her and Quinn for most of the film. In that sense, Quinn proves just as effective with his brutish nature and pride that makes his scenes with Masina striking in what we see beneath the surface, which proves effective with the final sequence of weeping at the dark that circles the lonely. Basehart rounds the cast down with amusement as the crucial piece of the dynamically tragic trio that make this more than a simple drama for the audience, one that will inspire a thought or two on human nature and oneself. The film was produced by noted international producers Carlo Ponti and Dino De Laurentiis, with the writing being done by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, and Ennio Flaiano (they would all collaborate to numerous scripts for Fellini over the years). It should only prove appropriate that there were numerous quirks to making the film, such as Quinn working on this film in the day while having to work on another film in the night-time (done because of production being delayed due to Masina spraining her ankle), while Fellini suffered a nervous breakdown that needed treatment before production could get closer to finishing, compounded with praise and criticism from critics in his native country (such as a Marxist critic stating the film, while not a badly directed and acted film was "wrong; its perspective is wrong", which makes me roll my eyes twice over). However, the film improved its standing over time, with its 1956 US release resulting in it winning an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film (the first given out as a general award, although honorary ones had been given out to world cinema films in eight of the previous nine ceremonies). On the whole, this is a richly interesting movie, one with plenty to portray through images within an earthy tone that made Fellini an iconic director of his time that stood as influence to directors such as David Lynch and Pedro Almodovar among others. This is an easy film to recommend for those who want to have an interesting time with something worthy of cinema in more ways than one. 

 Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.