‘La strada‘, made in 1954, is considered Fellini‘s first masterpiece. There are actually many ‘firsts’ collected by this film. It won the first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It is the first high-quality ‘road movie’ in European cinema. It gave Giulietta Masina the first of a series of ‘Chaplinean’ roles that would mark her entire career. In fact, all the great themes of Fellini‘s cinema as well as much of his visual motifs are present in ‘La strada‘. It can be said that ‘La strada‘ is the pilot film in a series of masterpieces.
The first scene of the film still belongs to the neo-realist genre, from which Fellini broke away. We are somewhere in a poor and dusty village in post-WWII Italy. A group of children are returning from the field, and among them the silhouette of Gelsomina stands out, a short young woman with an unmistakable face. From the moment she appears on the screen, the magic begins. Gelsomina is sold by her mother to Zampanò, a traveling artist who earns his living by traveling around Italy in his moped-drawn wagon and performing a circus act in which he breaks thick chains with the force of his chest muscles. Gelsomina will become a kind of assistant and partner in performances. She is a positive character who takes life as it happens, enjoys what it’s given. Innocence is combined with the desire to live, to know the world, to integrate into the circus universe. The dependency relationship between Zampanò and Gelsomina develops into an affection that the man is unable to recognize or express. The appearance of the Fool, a secondary character, but key in the development of the action, will shake the world of the two. The acrobat clown also has his feelings for Gelsomina, but realizing the connection between the two, he decides to withdraw. A later chance meeting has fatal consequences for all the three.
Every moment of Giulietta Masina‘s screen presence is a delight. Gelsomina is perhaps the most beautiful, complex, pathetic female character to descend from the all-male classic silent film characters. Anthony Quinn plays here in a role whose typology would return to many of his films – that of the lonely man, hardened in the struggles of life, expensive to talk and because of this finding it difficult to find ways to express his feelings for those in I swear, including or especially towards women. Richard Basehart, an actor who arguably didn’t have a career commensurate with his talent, fits the role of the Fool perfectly. Nino Rota‘s music sonically accompanies the visual expressiveness of the frames of the camera operated by Otello Martelli. “La strada” is one of those ageless movies. Watching or re-watching it is always a fabulous experience.