Ballarat Film Society – La Strada

Italy, 1954, b/w, 94 min.  Directed by Federico Fellini
Fellini Classic Neo-Realism

​Starring Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn and Richard Basehart, and produced by Dino De Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti, La Strada was Fellini’s 4th film and ensured his international reputation. Told in a fabulist style with a focus on love and jealousies, it is set in a circus featuring the brutish strongman Zampano (Quinn) and the plucky Gelsomina (Masina): brutish and innocent characters, both with intense emotions and desires. Throughout his film-making career, Fellini was fascinated by the tensions between a character’s theatrical façade and messy interior life. The film was controversial; however it has become one of the most influential films ever made. Confront Fellini’s 1950s sensibility, the tragedy of circus life and the enthralling music of Nino Rata. La Strada won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 1957.