La strada

Screening on Film

Directed by Federico Fellini.
With Giuletta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart.
Italy, 1954, 35mm, black & white, 115 min.
Italian with English subtitles.

Widely considered to be Fellini’s first masterpiece, La strada features a sublime performance by Giulietta Masina in the role of Gelsomina, a tragic waif who is sold to an itinerant strong man (Quinn) who exploits at every turn his new assistant’s desire for affection. Despite the pessimism of much of the story, memorably embodied in the grey and desolate towns the pair visit, Fellini had already begun to move far away from his roots in neorealism toward more poetic and symbolic imagery. Winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, La strada also features a memorable and haunting score by the great composer and lifelong Fellini associate Nino Rota.