Her Dudeness, the Film & TV Nerd.
  • Home
  • Film
  • TV

My Film Club, Week #3: La Strada

26/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
This week’s film is La Strada (The Road), is a 1954 Italian drama directed by Federico Fellini.

La Strada, is considered the most personal film of the great maestro of Italian cinema. As Fellini said, it is "a complete catalogue of my entire mythological world, a dangerous representation of my identity that was undertaken with no precedent whatsoever."

A film with great difficulties during shooting, injuries, financial problems and finally, just before shooting was completed, Fellini suffered a nervous breakdown that needed medical treatment in order to complete principal photography.
Picture
Shot almost entirely outside, a genuine road movie, La Strada tells the tale of Gelsomina, played by Fellini’s wife Giulietta Masina, a young naïve woman who is forced to live on the road with Zampano (Anthony Quinn) a strongman who performs in villages, in order to make a living. Their encounter with his old rival, the Fool (Richard Basehart) causes their destruction.

Masina gives a fantastic performance, almost overshadowing the great Antony Quinn. She is truly the tragic character of Gelsomina. Funny but sad at the same time. A true comedian.
Picture
Fun Fact: A remarkable characteristic of the film, is the fact that two of the stars are non-Italian and actually do not speak a word of Italian! That was no problem though, as it was a common practice at the time to shoot the film with no sound. So the English speaking actors (Quinn and Basehart) were shooting the film speaking English and the rest Italian cast, in Italian.

La Strada is one of the most acknowledged films of all time. It won the first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1956 and was placed fourth in the 1992 British Film Institute directors' list of cinema's top 10 films.
Picture
My Film Club

Week #3 featured the most personal film of the Great Maestro of Italian cinema. Week #4 will be about the master of suspense!

Next week’s film: Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Her Dudeness

    Ever since I first set foot on a cinema theatre, I knew that something magical was happening there....

    It's this thrill of somehow becoming (even for a little while) part of the other people's lives -  from different countries, times, cultures.

    It's watching Marlon Brando in "The Godfather", it's singing "Shout!" at the tonga party in the "Animal House", it's Brad Pitt screaming "What's in the box?" at "7seven", it's overall the feeling that somehow "you're not in Kansas anymore"...

    Archives

    February 2017
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Archives
    Awards
    My Film Club
    Reviews
    Trailers
    Videos

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Film
  • TV