La Strada (1954)

Original title

La strada

Directed by

Federico Fellini

Genre

drama film

Country

Italy

Runtime

1h 44m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.9 of 10 from 1,175 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A simple-minded young woman is sold to a brutish strongman who travels the countryside performing. She endures his cruelty while searching for kindness and meaning on the road.

melancholicslow-burnbleakvisceraltendertragicearthypoignant

What happens

La Strada (English: "The Road") is a 1954 Italian road tragedy film directed by Federico Fellini and co-written by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli and Ennio Flaiano. The film tells the story of Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), a simple-minded young woman bought from her mother by Zampanò (Anthony Quinn), a brutish strongman who takes her with him on the road. Fellini described La Strada as "a complete catalogue of my entire mythological world, a dangerous representation of my identity that was undertaken with no precedent whatsoever". As a result, the film demanded more time and effort than any of his other works, before or later. The development process was long and tortuous; there were problems during production, including insecure financial backing, problematic casting, and numerous delays. Finally, just before the production completed shooting, Fellini suffered a nervous breakdown that required medical treatment so that he could complete principal photography. Initial critical reaction was harsh, and the film's screening at the Venice Film Festival was the occasion of a bitter controversy that escalated into a public brawl between Fellini's supporters and detractors. Subsequently, however, La Strada has become "one of the most influential films ever made", according to the American Film Institute. It won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1957. It was placed fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors' list of cinema's top 10 films. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Woman of Rome (1954)
• Disowned (1954)
• L'Hôtel du rendez-vous (1954)
• Madonna delle rose (1954)
• Nel gorgo del peccato (1954)
• Pietà per chi cade (1954)
• Tears of Love (1954)
• Concert of Intrigue (1954)