La Strada

I adore Fellini's 8 1/2 with all my heart, but it took me a while to see anything else by him, probably because of his huge stature in the cineaste community. What if I didn't like, or didn't 'get' his other films. After a while, because it sounded great, I watched I Vitelloni shortly after the DVD came out, and was kind of disappointed. It certainly wasn't what I'd expected after the incredibly clever, immensely fantastic work that is 8 1/2. I was so worried that Fellini was going to be one of those filmmakers that I simply did not get, which was a shame because 8 1/2 had quickly become one of my favorite films of all time. So, I once again approached one of his works with trepidation, with fear that I'd dislike it. Thankfully, La Strada proved me wrong in so many ways.

La Strada (The Road) is the story of a traveling strongman, Zampano, whose assistant dies, so he goes back to her family and offers a hefty sum to employ another of their daughters, the waifish Gelsomina. She's quickly caught up in the whirlwind that is leaving her home and hitting the road with this powerful, charismatic man. Soon, Gelsomina discovers how terribly brutal Zampano really is, almost completely devoid of emotion. The plot is not as important to Fellini as are the characters, and their relations to one another as well as the events that unfold around them.

The back of the Criterion case states "There has never been a face quite like that of Giuletta Masina." And I remember looking at the cover, and thinking "Hm, she's not really too pretty." While that may be true, I completely understood the statement made by Criterion within the first few moments of the film. It's all about Masina's facial expressions. It's very true, I've never seen anybody who can express emotion so easily as she does in La Strada. So easily, she contorts her face and in an instant, you understand what she's thinking.

Her character in La Strada is simple-minded, for the most part. She's very child-like, and in the first half of the film, she often gets along so much easier with the children around her. Despite her treatment by Zampano, she's still facing everything that comes along with wide-eyed optomism and enthusiasm, and it's a joy just to watch her.

The title of the film, The Road, plays a large, if slightly indirect, part in the plot. Gelsomina and Zampano are travelers in the simplest sense, and they're always on the road, going from one town to another. The nun at the Convent sums it up best when she tells Gelsomina that to be always traveling is a way of not becoming attatched to anything, and this is exceptionally true in Gelsomina's case. Despite the fact that the trailer is much like a home for her, "with pots and pans," she's constantly having to say goodbye, leaving things she cares for behind, much as she left her home in the beginning of the film. She would probably much rather have stayed with the Circus, but she forces herself to wait for Zampano, much as she'd like to stay with The Fool or stay at the Convent.

Special note must be made of Nino Rota's stunning score. It's stunning. :)

I understand now why I didn't care much for I Vitelloni at first, because it was before Fellini's turning point away from neorealism, to a more fantastic, more surrealistic style. La Strada was this turning point, and it blends both styles elegantly. It's a wonderful film, and I'm sorry that I waited so long to see it.