La Strada (1956)

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This is the story of innocence versus brutality. Every day we hear about women who try their best to get by only to be subdued by the men they depend on. In this story, a woman who is actually sold to a man by her mother, works as a street performer with him. He is a strong man and he is never satisfied with her. She has enough and runs from him. She finds a man who tries to help her, but she is taken back by her abuser. What follows are a series of incidents where the paths cross again. Part of this is the life they lead, scraping for a few Lire. He sees her as property and expects loyalty though he gives her nothing. This film has strong performances by everyone: Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, and Giulleita Massina (Fellini's wife). We live and die with her. We feel her blows. This may well be Fellini's true masterpiece. The shots are masterful. Massina's face is worth a thousand words.

LA STRADA is a film about wandering and aimless life, the harsh truth and beautiful poetry. The film emphasizes the sadness, loneliness and need for love, purpose and understanding. The story is about an unusual friendship between strongman and mildly mentally retarded girl in the entertainment show.This film is a quite realistic and honest life's journey, in which lack of tenderness and compassion. It is fascinating that in said film does not express the tragedy nor exaggerated melodrama. Simple passions, fears and emotions is the easiest to recognize. In addition to expression and pantomime words are superfluous. Love hurts when it does not recognize.Acting is extremely touching. Anthony Quinn as Zampano in the role of a strong, simple and ruthless primitive. It is interesting to see how his characterization develops. The inherent solitude can not resist the poetry. Giulietta Masina as Gelsomina is versatile and all the story revolves around Gelsomina. Her eyes, sadness or joy on her face were enough to change human life. So much for the purpose.This is truly a beautiful film filled with sadness, humor and understanding.

With such simplicity one might wonder how Fellini pulled it off so marvelously. I saw this film after watching his masterpiece 8 1/2.. This one did not carry those complex scenes that need lots of interpretations, yet it had much depth in it and left a great deal of impact on me. Perhaps it was intended to have this simple plot because love that is the subject of this movie is simple and that is why it is so powerful.Zampano is the unmindful cruel man that cares for nothing but his pleasures.. he is a simple showman that travels from place to place to perform his acts. He starts taking Gelsomina, who is a poor simple minded young woman, with him in his rides after her mother sold her to him. Gelsomina is his contradiction.. an innocent pure soul that cares for others.. that wants to love and be loved.. that wants to give meaning to her life.She was miserable.. struggling with her new life when she learned from another showman, a character which seemed shallow from the outside and truly was deep from the inside, that everything was there for a reason and a purpose. Zampano, and so she thought, was the purpose of her being in life, and love was there.. but was it enough to change him..After a while she seemed crazier.. or maybe the insanity of people's acts were reflecting on her as she was purer and clearer than a mirror. She had a purpose and fought for it and there in every detail of this great film you will reflect on the simplicity and greatness of love.

A care-free girl (Giulietta Masina) is sold to a traveling entertainer (Anthony Quinn), consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.This film is huge and "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 1956, and it was placed fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors' list of cinema's top 10 films. At no time has it ever disappeared from the IMDb Top 250, showing that general audiences love it, too.This is a great film, a fun film, with two characters really driving the story. Quinn and Masina tell the story with their faces, the laughs and snarls and everything else. Although the film was recorded in Italian, it could have survived as a silent film just as easily.