La Strada
Encyclopedia
La Strada is a 1954 Italian neorealist
drama directed by Federico Fellini
in which a naïve young woman (Giulietta Masina
) is sold to a brutish man (Anthony Quinn
) and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show.
La Strada won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
in 1956, the first presented in that category.
), a fey young woman, learns her sister Rosa has died since going on the road with the strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn
). Now the same man has returned a year later to ask her mother if Gelsomina will take Rosa's place. The mother accepts 10,000 lire and her daughter departs the same day.
Zampanò makes his living as an itinerant performer, entertaining crowds by breaking an iron chain bound tightly across his chest, then passing the hat for tips. In short order, Gelsomina's naïve and antic nature emerges, although Zampanò's brutish methods present her with a callous foil
. He teaches her to play the snare drum
and trumpet
, dance a bit, and clown for the audience. Despite her willingness to please, he relies on intimidation and even cruelty at times to maintain his dominion.
Finally, she rebels and leaves, making her way into town. There she watches the act of another street entertainer, Il Matto ("The Fool"), a talented high wire
artist and clown (Richard Basehart
). When Zampanò finds her there, he forcibly takes her back. They join a ragtag traveling circus, and Il Matto already works there. For reasons he himself cannot understand, Il Matto maliciously teases the strongman at every opportunity. After getting drenched by a pail of water, Zampanò chases after his tormentor with his knife drawn; as a result, both men are briefly jailed and eventually fired.
Gelsomina's difficulties with her forced partnership are the subject of frequent soul searching. After Il Matto's release from prison, he proposes that there are alternatives to her servitude, and imparts his philosophy that everything and everyone has a purpose—even a pebble, even her. A nun suggests that Gelsomina's purpose in life is comparable to her own. But when Gelsomina offers the possibility of marriage, Zampanò brushes her off.
The separate paths of fool and strongman cross for the last time on an empty stretch of road, when Zampanò comes upon Il Matto fixing a flat tire. As Gelsomina watches in horror, the strongman satisfies his revenge on the clown with a series of blows to the head. Il Matto complains that his watch is broken before he collapses and dies. Zampanò hides the body and pushes the car off the road.
The killing breaks Gelsomina's spirit. After ten days, her affect remains flat and her eyes lifeless. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Zampanò abandons her while she is taking a nap.
Some years later, he overhears a woman singing a tune Gelsomina often played. He learns that the woman's father had found Gelsomina on the beach and kindly taken her in. However, she wasted away and died. Zampanò gets drunk and wanders to the beach, where he breaks down and cries uncontrollably.
. A pig castrator lived there who was known as a womanizer: according to Fellini, "This man took all the girls in town to bed with him; once he left a poor idiot girl pregnant and everyone said the baby was the devil's child." In 1992, Fellini told Canadian director Damian Pettigrew
that he had conceived the film at the same time as co-scenarist Tullio Pinelli
in a kind of "orgiastic synchronicity":
, Viterbo
, Lazio, Ovindoli
, L'Aquila
, and Abruzzo
.
is "Travelling Down a Lonely Road", a wistful tune that appears in the film first as a melody played by the Fool on a miniature violin and later by Gelsomina after she learns the trumpet. Its last cue in the penultimate scene is sung by the woman who tells Zampano the fate of Gelsomina after he abandoned her.
on September 6, 1954 and won the Silver Lion. It opened wide in Italy on September 22, 1954, and in the United States
on July 16, 1956.
Tullio Cicciarelli of Il Lavoro nuovo saw the film as:
In Il Secolo XIX, Ermanno Contini praised Fellini as:
When the film was released in France in 1955, Dominique Aubier of Les Cahiers du cinéma thought La Strada:
based on the film opened on Broadway
on December 14, 1969, but closed after one performance.
Serbian rock
band La Strada
took their name from the film.
Bob Dylan
cites La Strada as an influence for the song "Mr. Tambourine Man
".
Kris Kristofferson
has said that La Strada was an inspiration for the song "Me and Bobby McGee
", which is heard in the road movie Two-Lane Blacktop
.
One of the narrators in Mark Z. Danielewski
's novel House of Leaves
is named Zampanò.
Note
. "Ho parlato male de La Strada", in: Cinema, n.139, August 1954. Redi, Riccardo. "La Strada", in: Cinema, n° 130, March 1954. Swados, Harvey. "La Strada: Realism and the Comedy of Poverty." in: Yale French Studies, n° 17, 1956, p. 38-43. Torresan, Paolo, and Franco Pauletto (2004). La Strada'. Federico Fellini. Perugia: Guerra Edizioni, lingua italiana per stranieri, Collana: Quaderni di cinema italiano per stranieri, p. 32. ISBN 8877157909, ISBN 9788877157904
Young, Vernon. "La Strada: Cinematographic Intersections." in: The Hudson Review, Vol. 9, n° 3, Autumn 1956, p. 437-434.
Italian neorealism
Italian neorealism is a style of film characterized by stories set amongst the poor and working class, filmed on location, frequently using nonprofessional actors...
drama directed by Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
in which a naïve young woman (Giulietta Masina
Giulietta Masina
Giulietta Masina was an Italian film and stage actress. She starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1956 and 1957, respectively...
) is sold to a brutish man (Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
) and goes on the road as a part of his itinerant show.
La Strada won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
in 1956, the first presented in that category.
Plot
Gelsomina (Giulietta MasinaGiulietta Masina
Giulietta Masina was an Italian film and stage actress. She starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1956 and 1957, respectively...
), a fey young woman, learns her sister Rosa has died since going on the road with the strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
). Now the same man has returned a year later to ask her mother if Gelsomina will take Rosa's place. The mother accepts 10,000 lire and her daughter departs the same day.
Zampanò makes his living as an itinerant performer, entertaining crowds by breaking an iron chain bound tightly across his chest, then passing the hat for tips. In short order, Gelsomina's naïve and antic nature emerges, although Zampanò's brutish methods present her with a callous foil
Foil (literature)
In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character in order to highlight particular qualities of another character....
. He teaches her to play the snare drum
Snare drum
The snare drum or side drum is a melodic percussion instrument with strands of snares made of curled metal wire, metal cable, plastic cable, or gut cords stretched across the drumhead, typically the bottom. Pipe and tabor and some military snare drums often have a second set of snares on the bottom...
and trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, dance a bit, and clown for the audience. Despite her willingness to please, he relies on intimidation and even cruelty at times to maintain his dominion.
Finally, she rebels and leaves, making her way into town. There she watches the act of another street entertainer, Il Matto ("The Fool"), a talented high wire
Tightrope walking
Tightrope walking is the art of walking along a thin wire or rope, usually at a great height. One or more artists performs in front of an audience or as a publicity stunt...
artist and clown (Richard Basehart
Richard Basehart
John Richard Basehart was an American actor. He starred in the 1960s television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson.-Career:...
). When Zampanò finds her there, he forcibly takes her back. They join a ragtag traveling circus, and Il Matto already works there. For reasons he himself cannot understand, Il Matto maliciously teases the strongman at every opportunity. After getting drenched by a pail of water, Zampanò chases after his tormentor with his knife drawn; as a result, both men are briefly jailed and eventually fired.
Gelsomina's difficulties with her forced partnership are the subject of frequent soul searching. After Il Matto's release from prison, he proposes that there are alternatives to her servitude, and imparts his philosophy that everything and everyone has a purpose—even a pebble, even her. A nun suggests that Gelsomina's purpose in life is comparable to her own. But when Gelsomina offers the possibility of marriage, Zampanò brushes her off.
The separate paths of fool and strongman cross for the last time on an empty stretch of road, when Zampanò comes upon Il Matto fixing a flat tire. As Gelsomina watches in horror, the strongman satisfies his revenge on the clown with a series of blows to the head. Il Matto complains that his watch is broken before he collapses and dies. Zampanò hides the body and pushes the car off the road.
The killing breaks Gelsomina's spirit. After ten days, her affect remains flat and her eyes lifeless. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Zampanò abandons her while she is taking a nap.
Some years later, he overhears a woman singing a tune Gelsomina often played. He learns that the woman's father had found Gelsomina on the beach and kindly taken her in. However, she wasted away and died. Zampanò gets drunk and wanders to the beach, where he breaks down and cries uncontrollably.
Cast
- Anthony QuinnAnthony QuinnAntonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
as Zampanò - Giulietta MasinaGiulietta MasinaGiulietta Masina was an Italian film and stage actress. She starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1956 and 1957, respectively...
(Fellini's wife) as Gelsomina - Richard BasehartRichard BasehartJohn Richard Basehart was an American actor. He starred in the 1960s television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson.-Career:...
as Il Matto - the Fool - Aldo SilvaniAldo SilvaniAldo Silvani was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 112 films between 1934 and 1964.He was born in Turin, Italy and died in Milan, Italy.-Selected filmography:* Four Steps in the Clouds...
as Il Signor Giraffa - Mr. Giraffe, the circus owner - Marcella Rovere as La Vedova - the Widow
- Livia Venturini as La Suorina - the Nun
Production
Background
The idea for the character Zampanò came from Fellini's youth in the coastal town of RiminiRimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...
. A pig castrator lived there who was known as a womanizer: according to Fellini, "This man took all the girls in town to bed with him; once he left a poor idiot girl pregnant and everyone said the baby was the devil's child." In 1992, Fellini told Canadian director Damian Pettigrew
Damian Pettigrew
Damian Pettigrew is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, author, and multimedia artist, best known for his cinematic portraits of Balthus and Federico Fellini...
that he had conceived the film at the same time as co-scenarist Tullio Pinelli
Tullio Pinelli
Tullio Pinelli was an Italian screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I Vitelloni, La strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½.-Biography:...
in a kind of "orgiastic synchronicity":
"I was directing I vitelloni, and Tullio had gone to see his family in Turin. At that time, there was no autostrada between Rome and the north and so you had to drive through the mountains. Along one of the tortuous winding roads, he saw a man pulling a carretta, a sort of cart covered in tarpaulin... A tiny woman was pushing the cart from behind. When he returned to Rome, he told me what he'd seen and his desire to narrate their hard lives on the road. 'It would make the ideal scenario for your next film,' he said. It was the same story I'd imagined but with a crucial difference: mine focused on a little traveling circus with a slow-witted young woman named Gelsomina. So we merged my flea-bitten circus characters with his smoky campfire mountain vagabonds. We named Zampanò after the owners of two small circuses in Rome: Zamperla and Saltano."
Filming locations
The picture was shot in BagnoregioBagnoregio
Bagnoregio is a comune in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region of Lazio, located about 90 km northwest of Rome and about 28 km north of Viterbo.-History:...
, Viterbo
Viterbo
See also Viterbo, Texas and Viterbo UniversityViterbo is an ancient city and comune in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It is approximately 80 driving / 80 walking kilometers north of GRA on the Via Cassia, and it is surrounded by the Monti Cimini and...
, Lazio, Ovindoli
Ovindoli
Ovindoli is a village and comune of the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. Close to Rome, it is a popular resort for both summer and winter sports, including hiking, biking, equestrian activities and downhill and cross-country skiing.-Geography:Ovindoli lies in the...
, L'Aquila
L'Aquila
L'Aquila is a city and comune in central Italy, both the capital city of the Abruzzo region and of the Province of L'Aquila. , it has a population of 73,150 inhabitants, but has a daily presence in the territory of 100,000 people for study, tertiary activities, jobs and tourism...
, and Abruzzo
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
.
Music
The main theme by Nino RotaNino Rota
Nino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...
is "Travelling Down a Lonely Road", a wistful tune that appears in the film first as a melody played by the Fool on a miniature violin and later by Gelsomina after she learns the trumpet. Its last cue in the penultimate scene is sung by the woman who tells Zampano the fate of Gelsomina after he abandoned her.
Distribution
The film premiered at the Venice Film FestivalVenice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
on September 6, 1954 and won the Silver Lion. It opened wide in Italy on September 22, 1954, and in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on July 16, 1956.
Reception
Italy and FranceTullio Cicciarelli of Il Lavoro nuovo saw the film as:
...an unfinished poem, but one deliberately unfinished for fear that its essence be lost in the callousness of critical definition, or in the ambiguity of classification. La Strada cannot be classified nor does it sustain the weight of rational discussion and comparison (when the film was shown at the Venice Film Festival, many critics saw in it suggestions of Chaplin). The film should be accepted for its strange fragility and its often too colorful, almost artificial moments, or else totally rejected. If we try to analyze Fellini's film, its fragmentary quality becomes immediately evident and we are obliged to treat each fragment, each personal comment, each secret confession separately.
In Il Secolo XIX, Ermanno Contini praised Fellini as:
...a master story-teller. The narrative is light and harmonious, drawing its essence, resilience, uniformity and purpose from small details, subtle annotations and soft tones that slip naturally into the humble plot of a story apparently void of action. But how much meaning, how much ferment enrich this apparent simplicity. It is all there although not always clearly evident, not always interpreted with full poetical and human eloquence: it is suggested with considerable delicacy and sustained by a subtle emotive force.
When the film was released in France in 1955, Dominique Aubier of Les Cahiers du cinéma thought La Strada:
...belongs to the mythological class, a class intended to captivate the critics more perhaps than the general public. Fellini attains a summit rarely reached by other film directors: style at the service of the artist’s mythological universe. This example once more proves that the cinema has less need of technicians - there are too many already - than of creative intelligence. To create such a film, the author must have had not only a considerable gift for expression but also a deep understanding of certain spiritual problems.
Influence
A musicalLa Strada (musical)
La Strada is a musical with lyrics and music by Lionel Bart, with additional lyrics by Martin Charnin and additional music by Elliot Lawrence. It is based on the 1954 film of the same name by Federico Fellini. Bart wrote the score in 1967 and made a demonstration recording, although the musical...
based on the film opened on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
on December 14, 1969, but closed after one performance.
Serbian rock
Serbian rock
Serbian rock is the rock music scene of Serbia. During the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, while Serbia was a constituent republic of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbian rock scene was a part of the SFR Yugoslav rock scene....
band La Strada
La Strada (band)
La Strada was a Serbian and former Yugoslav New Wave/alternative rock band from Novi Sad.- New Wave era :The band was formed by Slobodan Tišma also known as "Deda" , a rock veteran and poet, and called it La Strada by the Federico Fellini movie La strada...
took their name from the film.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
cites La Strada as an influence for the song "Mr. Tambourine Man
Mr. Tambourine Man
"Mr. Tambourine Man" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan, which was released on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The Byrds also recorded a version of the song that was released as their first single on Columbia Records, reaching number 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and...
".
Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
has said that La Strada was an inspiration for the song "Me and Bobby McGee
Me and Bobby McGee
"Me and Bobby McGee" is a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, originally performed by Roger Miller. Others performed the song later, including Kristofferson himself, and Janis Joplin who topped the U.S. singles chart with the song in 1971 after her death, making the song the second...
", which is heard in the road movie Two-Lane Blacktop
Two-Lane Blacktop
Two-Lane Blacktop is a 1971 road movie directed by Monte Hellman, starring singer-songwriter James Taylor, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird. Esquire magazine declared the film its movie of the year for 1971, and even published the entire screenplay in its April, 1971...
.
One of the narrators in Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski, born March 5, 1966 in New York City, New York, is an American author, best known for his debut novel House of Leaves...
's novel House of Leaves
House of Leaves
House of Leaves is the debut novel by the American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published by Pantheon Books. The novel quickly became a bestseller following its March 7, 2000 release. It was followed by a companion piece, The Whalestoe Letters...
is named Zampanò.
Awards and nominations
| Award/Festival | Category | Winner/Nominee | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards 29th Academy Awards During the 29th Academy Awards, the regular competitive category of Best Foreign Language Film was introduced, instead of only being recognized as a Special Achievement Award or as a Best Picture nominee . The first winner in this new category was Federico Fellini's La strada with Anthony Quinn and... |
Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences... |
Federico Fellini Federico Fellini Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century... |
Yes |
| Best Writing, Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay) The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material. Before 1940, there was an Academy Award for Best Story for writing. For 1940, it and the award in this article were separated into two awards. Beginning with the... |
Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli Tullio Pinelli Tullio Pinelli was an Italian screenwriter best known for his work on the Federico Fellini classics I Vitelloni, La strada, La Dolce Vita and 8½.-Biography:... , Ennio Flaiano Ennio Flaiano Ennio Flaiano , was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist and drama critic... |
No | |
| Bodil Awards Bodil Awards The Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics . The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in the Imperial Cinema in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe... |
Best European Film | Federico Fellini | Yes |
| Blue Ribbon Awards | Best Foreign Language Film | Federico Fellini | Yes |
| British Academy of Film and Television Arts British Academy of Film and Television Arts The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:... |
Best Film from any Source | Federico Fellini | No |
| Best Foreign Actress | Giulietta Masina Giulietta Masina Giulietta Masina was an Italian film and stage actress. She starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, in 1956 and 1957, respectively... |
No | |
| Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain | Best Foreign Film | Federico Fellini | Yes |
| Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists | Silver Ribbon; Best Director | Federico Fellini | Yes |
| Silver Ribbon; Best Producer | Dino De Laurentiis, Carlo Ponti Carlo Ponti Carlo Ponti was an Italian film producer with over 140 production credits, and the husband of Italian movie star Sophia Loren.-Career:... |
Yes | |
| Silver Ribbon; Best Story/Screenplay | Dino De Laurentiis, Tullio Pinelli | Yes | |
| Kinema Junpo Awards, Japan | Best Foreign Language Film | Federico Fellini | Yes |
| New York Film Critics Circle Awards New York Film Critics Circle Awards New York Film Critics' Circle Awards are given annually to honor excellence in cinema worldwide by an organization of film reviewers from New York City-based publications. It is considered one of the most important precursors to the Academy Awards.... |
Best Foreign Language Film | Federico Fellini | Yes |
| Venice Film Festival Venice Film Festival The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the... |
Silver Lion | Federico Fellini | Yes |
| Golden Lion | Federico Fellini | No | |
Note
- La Strada won more than fifty international awards, including an Oscar in 1956 for Best Foreign Language Film, the first prize ever given in that category.
See also
- List of submissions to the 29th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Italian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Further reading
Aristarco, Guido. La Strada. In: Cinema Nuovo, n° 46, Novembre 1954. Bastide, F., J. Caputo, and C. Marker. La Strada', un film di Federico Fellini. Paris: Du Seul, 1955.- Fellini, Federico, Peter Bondanella, and Manuela Gieri.
Ennio Flaiano
Ennio Flaiano , was an Italian screenwriter, playwright, novelist, journalist and drama critic...
. "Ho parlato male de La Strada", in: Cinema, n.139, August 1954. Redi, Riccardo. "La Strada", in: Cinema, n° 130, March 1954.
External links
- La Strada film trailer at You Tube