Fellini, this is the matrix of a whole section of contemporary cinema that we love: Lynch above all, Almodóvar of course, Terry Gilliam... And as long as one wants to (re)discover his universe infused with poetry, his taste of grotesque and his passion for fantasy, La Strada is an ideal front door. A true tale about loneliness and sin, it fits straight into Italian neorealism while already starting a turn by gradually pointing out that the maestro will prolong afterwards. In short, a nugget that it is now possible to view in excellent quality thanks to its reissue at Rimini.
The part of the dream
Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina), a simple and dreamy young woman, is sold by her mother to Zampano (Anthony Quinn a true cinematic mouth that is found in Lawrence of Arabia), a brutal fora who embarks on the roads to assist him in his street numbers. As she endures her angers and silences, Gelsomina meets Il Matto (Richard Basehart), a farce and philosopher funambule, which blows him that everything in life has a meaning... These are the main narrative nodes of La Strada, which prepare to weave in a dense and poetic work the central piece of Federico Fellini's filmography just a few years before the release of one of his other jewels, 81⁄2 .
Neorealism out of canon, that's where to rank La Strada which strives to capture the gules of a deeply rural Italy while making its actors evolve into natural settings. Broken lives, dusty country, where the faces of this handful of clowns appose a balm that is unable to appease the harsh socio-economic conditions of the post-war period. It is in this carcan that Gelsomina appears, driven out of her own family to fill the belly of her sisters. A true female Pierrot, her own mother describes her as "different from others". And it's this character that's gonna slide La Strada from his rough and muddy universe to a much more metaphysical abstraction. With a story of cruel abandonment, Fellini pours into a surrealistic fable where strange musicians can emerge in the midst of a deserted countryside, where the protagonists are almost totally incarnate in their stage characters and where the (splendid) B.O. tints the plans of a soft quasi-lyric mystery.
Margin poet
And the whole film – or almost – will come from Gelsomina's face, often captured in the background. Ultra-expressive in the way commedia dell-arte, the young woman recalls the great hours of silent cinema, in the flesh of a character whom would not have denied Chaplin. Apposed to the bourru Zampano, she appears in the film as a quasi-symbolic incarnation. He who groans every night to entertain his public with his lies, she who carries in her a candour, joy and a natural spontaneity...
The story initiates the place elsewhere first in Candide, launched across Italy in search of its own garden to cultivate. A false lead... Indeed, it is she who will plant the seeds (and with them, a seed of hope), while instead Zampano continues his flight forward in search of a new audience and some additional liases. The naïve of the affair is not what one believes, and with anger and blindness he will commit the tragic fault.
Yet, if Gelsomina's gaze gives life to the margins, runs the places of festive villages, offers the luxury of circus and party, La Strada gradually tints with a sad melancholy that makes it probably one of the most poignant narratives of Fellini's cinema (and well beyond). In an economy of effects and words, the Italian director creates a troubled relationship between these antinomic beings, but also and above all an irremediable attachment for the character of Gelsomina that makes only the sinuosities that the feature film will borrow more terrifying.
This true masterpiece of amazing contemporaneity offers today a magnificent reissue* Thanks to Rimini. It will therefore be possible to (re)discover La Strada in the best conditions since accompanied by a plethora of bonus choices, including a second documentary film: Fellini, I am a Great Lier by Damian Pettigrew.
* The box contains in particular:
- Interview with Frédéric Mercier (critical to Positive) and Marcos Uzal (chief editor of the Cahiers du Cinéma) / 39 min.
- Radio interview with Giulietta Masina – Archive INA / 30 min.
- Federico Fellini, unreleased drawing and interview sequence / 15 min.
- The pericolantous casa: In the footsteps of the places of Fella / 19 min.
- Eight and a half interviews: including Roland Topor, Moebius, Lo Dusca, Tuscan du Plantier / 45 min.
Data sheet
Blu-ray Region B (France)
Publisher: Rimini Editions
Duration: 109 min
Release date: 06 May 2025
Video format : 1080p/24 – 1.37
Soundtrack : Italian and French DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles French
Great article. Very documented about a whole section of the cinema I don't know. Makes you want to get on with it!